They sure know how to celebrate life in Brazil. I’m thinking about what I used to give up for Lent.
I’m also thinking about who to paint. I’ve been working on the same batch of mugshots for a few years now, doing them in oil and then pencil and then tempera and even a few watercolors. Lately I’ve been working in charcoal, a medium I find very malleable. You can white out tempura but it gets messy and watercolor is almost impossible to go backwards in but a good eraser can really tear up a charcoal drawing. Maybe I should paint the twelve apostles.
9 Comments
Anything but mugshots. That horse has been dead for years. How about portraits of people in your life?
what about the jazz players u love, like a series on all the cool players who were on that french label, actuel. or a blue note series, or esperanza series, something like that? (if u did esperanza artists, you’d get to paint patty waters). the subjects would be related which is maybe one thing u like about the mug shots?
is this a contest? if so what is the prize for the person whose idea u choose? anything like what the winner of the 1 billionth iTunes download gets?
No offense to the the people in in my life but the mugshot faces are more interesting. I like the attitude and the confrontation. I’ve drawn the same faces over and over for years in order to develop them. My progress has been slow but I like this batch much more than the last so for me they aren’t dead yet. Jazz musicians would be cool, maybe full figure and from memory – Ornette’s in a bright blue suit, Eric Dolphy with goatee and bass clarinet, Sun Ra’s robes, Charles Mingus with a shotgun, Archie Shepp with a pork pie hat and tenor sax, Ed Blackwell on the throne, Monk twirling in circles. There is a prize but I haven’t figured out what it is yet. Thank you for the input.
What about the popes? Unless you’ll have trouble fitting the ‘mitres’ in the frame.
I personally think you should paint pictures of cats doing funny things- there’s big money in that. And I know that that’s a priority deep down….
I like this group of twelve drawings, Paul. Numbers 3,5,8 and 9 have a psychological intensity that is particularly compelling. Thanks for making them.
Thought you would never ask. I have always been a fan of your photographs. I might mean ‘snapshots’ but some would be insulted by that. Not to say that I am not a fan of the mugshots or your paintings in general, I am. Would love to see the Pop Wars series of paintings hanging say, in Skylark Lounge or anywhere really. That said, my taste runs towards pop art, maybe a bit too much…
charcoal is ash, isnt it?
Obviously, you need to do cops next.