New/Old Direction

Those who know my work know that I do some representational work, mainly in the figurative area. I lean more to the abstract figure in a abstracted background, but recognizable as a figure. See Uri Portrait of a young Man. My first introduction with abstacting the figure was with Melinda Cootsona was from a lesson way back in 2020 when she was a guest speaker at the Academy of Cold Wax, where she explained her process. She has many e-courses, some self-study, plus one-on-one workshops. I am presently taking a course with her through Kara Bullock Art School called Lean Into Figurative Abstraction. If anyone does any figurative work, Melinda is a MUST! I have taken 3 full e-courses and one self study course with Melinda, love her teaching methods.

First Exercise

Finding shapes in a portrait using Notanizer or posterizer on a photo edit program. One of the learning goals is to recognize shapes and show how little you need to recognize the face or figure. Did 2 studies, a three tone and 4 tone painting. The 4 tone painting is more expressive and loose in the shapes, so Melinda suggested I do a second using more defined shapes, the 3 tone portrait. I usually paint with loose edges, so this was out of my comfort zone. My reference was a portrait taken by my father when I was 17-18, a million years ago.

Four tone study

Oils and cold wax

12x12" on paper

Three tone study

Oils and cold wax

12x12" on paper