Back to painting

I've been sticking to the pen and Photoshop for a few years now, almost like I was afraid to try a different medium. But I'd loved painting so much back in school that I took the same painting class for three semesters in a row, just to give myself painting time in the studio. I'd even go back during the holidays to clock in "research hours" for my professor, which were basically spent painting willing sitters.

So I started painting again.

Firstly because I now teach a few adults basic oil painting, and I get to practice.

Secondly because it's important for me to remember why I love art.

Not to create work based on what I think the client would like, or what would sell.

But to enjoy the purity of creation, to paint for painting's sake, and to experiment.

Kind of based on the funny faces I liked to sketch in pastels, but also influenced by Audrey Kawasaki, one of my favourite contemporary painters ever.

Then I did this for k, who requested a portrait. I threw myself in beside him as a bonus.

It's funny--I painted k from a photograph at first, and though it really looked like him (so he said), it also looked too dead. Like a smile from too long ago.

So I did this mostly from memory, imagining him the way his personality is.

The imagination is a lot clearer sometimes.

So this is how I imagine us to be on Saturdays: kind of floating next to each other contentedly, my orange hair colliding into his shock of black hair, everything light and airy.