Its been an interesting first six weeks into Let's Face It 2025 but let me first say? Loving. It. Because that's the over-riding feeling I've had. I'm excited to see what each week holds, how I'll adapt/interpret the lesson and how it will inform my ongoing work. So. Yah. woot woot
That being said... the one thing I was NOT prepared for was the overwhelming response to my posted work...entirely POSITIVE I might add and still? overwhelming. Because...was my previous work so awful? so unapproachable or unreachable? I don't know. I mean. I get it, right? Faces and figures, particularly representative which have been the majority of lessons so far, are HIGHLY understandable. So why does it feel like such a kick in the face? I know. I know. I'm being ungrateful. I'm being a spoiled, bratty kid. And yet...and yet? ugh.
I mentioned this in an online art group and someone suggested that it was the previous work that was informing THIS work and maybe that's why it was being so well received. And I pondered that. It truly does feel like the last 25...even 30 given my 10years of digital work...has been leading to this current phase in my art journey. I have always gravitated to faces and figures. Back in my watercolour days, some 40 (ack!) years ago, I painted people whilst everyone else was focussing on landscapes and buildings. So maybe she was not far wrong. Maybe folks can feel my satisfaction with this course and it's coming through? Sure. Okay. We'll go with that!
I should mention, for Tom's birthday I did a painting of Norma Jean holding Stella. I think it turned out okay. I mean you can definitely tell who it is. But the weirdest thing happened while doing it...I felt like Stella was coming to life right there in front of me. Maybe because her face is zoomed up in mine, maybe because I know her so very well, but it was a very emotional, a very lovely feeling. I know now if I need to feel her close? All I have to do is draw her. And that gives me overwhelming peace.
Okay. The remaining paintings I've done over the last six weeks are posted below. See you later gators!
