Ann and Bess

My first paintings in 2014, when I had started a new serious endeavor into oils. This was my first attempt on a wood panel, Ann and the painting Bess along with her as a "pair". They really were being painted simultaneously.

I have favored the look of either the long and tall, or short and wide formats for some time, being of a cinema-trained background I'm guessing, and also beyond that of the 16:9 format...more of a "Cinemascope" kind of feel, like the original of "2001: A Space Odyssey". Seeing as how my subjects here do in fact float, I guess that's apropos.

These floating ladies mean various things to me, mostly the word "resignation" coming to mind. Something about the peaceful resolve to abnegate your own natural environment for that of another you cannot actually live in makes these figures almost like sirens, but not beckoning to rocks, rather...to bliss. There is a willingness about them to become blended with this other world and take what moments they possibly can in the silence of another.

My painting called "Resignation" in fact is almost the same, as are "Undecided, Upstream After The Wedding", "Somnolite", "Undercurrent" etc. Seems I have a theme going.

The most difficult issues I deal with when actually painting these, of course, are 1: getting the models to hold still and hold their breath, and 2, keeping my wood panels from floating upwards whilst trying to apply the paint. I have to weight them down with rocks. Then there's those danged manta rays...I think they're attracted to the smell of linseed oil, but thankfully it repels sharks.

Eh hem....Ok, really I always thank the underwater photographers for the use of their works as models for these, especially Elena Kalis, Harry Fayt, and others. These 2 were both Elena.