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September 2, 2021 by

When eyes see things much too far.

First published in June 2017 when I was mostly painting portraits. Published again today, four years later.

Even though I cringe a bit when I look back at some of my work, I am happy that I took those first steps (because let's face it, some people never start) and I had the audacity to publish my work online. Truthfully, if I would have waited for my art to be perfect, I would not be here today. This blog is an effective record of the evolution of my work.

To all who have viewed and read my posts silently without comment, I sincerely thank you. And for those of you who share my posts or my art anywhere on social media, and/or leave comments regularly, I cannot begin to tell you how much it means to me to know you are there! A thousand times, THANK YOU!

 

She always had that about her, that look of otherness, of eyes that see things much too far, and of thoughts that wander off the edge of the world. ~ Joanne Harris.

"That look of otherness". Mixed media: XL graphite blocks, Neocolor II, acrylics, collage of original printed tissue paper done with the Gelli plate on 11x15 inch Canson watercolor paper.

When eyes see things much too far, what do they see?

This is a good question; it seems to be relevant to the portrait as she has a look that says she is not present in the moment.

Is she looking in the distance or is she daydreaming? I don't know.

She is a surprise to me because when I started her I had no predetermined idea of the end result.

Here she is at the beginning of the process, looking a little like Marilyn Monroe.

initial rough sketch with XL graphite and gesso

She began to take a life of her own after I added colours using watered down Neocolors II.

portrait painting - added colours to initial sketch with Neocolors II

progress on mixed media portrait

When I was fairly certain I had a face that I liked painted on paper, I added the collage in the background.

I chose the Gelli printed paper with bronze and orange and green since I thought these colours were also in her skin tone. This is tissue paper that I had painted last fall while experimenting for another project.

I painted a portrait using the Gelli printed paper in a shirt a few months ago: Nests in her hair for spring

You can see the actual Gelli plate here:  Experiments with new art supplies and life is good!

Gelli printed tissue paper in background of portrait

Finally, at the very end when I thought I was done, I didn't like her hair. And then I didn't like one of her eyes and eyebrows either.

Acrylic paints are somewhat easy to rework and so I made the necessary adjustments.

And now she gazes in the distance, quite aloof to her surroundings, looking off into the distance, and I wonder what she is seeing.

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