This is another addition to the series of portraits I've been amassing on Black American artists, musicians, poets, and other notable creatives. Mark Bradford is an accomplished abstract artist known for his collage paintings. He also incorporates video, print and installation in his process.
I started this painting in 2020 during the COVID lockdown period. I kept imagining a little piece of paradise floating in tropical waters. It was all but finished except that it needed a figure, and I remained undecided forever about it . . . that is, until recently. Even though isolation can foster a feeling of NOT belonging, I wanted the figure in this scene to have a sense of place, of belonging there, as if isolation is a chosen thing.
This nude study is based on a painting by Guillaume Seignac, entitled "The Awakening of Psyche." I'm planning to attend a figure painting workshop this summer and feel the need to paint nudes to kind of get in shape for the workshop.
Just a doodle based on a Peter Wileman painting, playing around with color and shape here. I like the color combos and the overall composition.
This is my third portrait of Amy Winehouse, who never ceases to fascinate me. With this portrait, I wanted to capture her edgier side. She came off much more innocent in my first try, then the second I left unfinished, as I wasn't happy with it. I like this one, though. I feel I got what I was after with it. There was often an undercurrent of anger in her, but that was also part of her appeal, her fire. A highly emotional singer, she didn't hold back.
This is a quick study that I rendered for a larger painting I envision that may not look much like this one when I'm done. This was just to get familiar with the figure's contours. I wanted an elongated torso a la Modigliani, so I exaggerated it on this figure based on the Matisse sculpture "Reclining Nude."
Here's another painting from New Mexico. I used to drive by this scene in Arroyo Seco on my way to Taos Ski Valley, and as the sun was setting, it would light up Taos Mountain with shades of pink, crimson, and maroon as the sun slowly sank out of sight, giving credence to the monicker Sangre de Cristo.
This is the view I had from my kitchen window in Arroyo Seco, NM. This scene frequently mesmerized me with the ever-changing moods of that mountain. It seemed like a living, breathing thing.
This portrait was done from a photo of my deceased partner's daughter, Rose, when she was around 20 years old and still living in the U.K. I thought it would make a fun portrait. She is a fantastic person, funny and cheeky, and feels like a sister to me.
Here's another attempt at a cityscape, this one of downtown San Francisco at night. This type of urban one-point perspective scene is new to me and quite challenging, so it's a useful learning experience.
This painting is the result of a workshop I took recently in urban landscapes with Jacob Dhein. I may tweak it here and there, but this is pretty much as far as I can go with it. I found the workshop challenging, but that's because this kind of painting is new to me. I can recall only having done one other urban landscape before. I've got another one in mind to do, which hopefully won't take nearly as long as this one did.
This painting started life as an abstract exploration of yellow, black and grey, inspired by the colors of a MiniCooper I had seen on the road that was mostly grey with black accents, a yellow grill and yellow ears. I like this particular color combo with the various mixes it produces, especially the green/greys. The yellow warbler just seemed like a natural fit.
Here's another painting on the theme of feminine mystique, which is turning into a series, it seems. I get a kick out of paintings that tell a story, and this one is up for grabs -- my favorite kind!
This was just an exercise to loosen up with some figures and experiment with composition. A loose interpretation of Bouguereau's The Birth of Venus, I simplified and went more abstract in places just to see how far I could push it.
Just playing with color here, and abstract shapes. Somehow, a dog insisted on making an appearance. There you go!
This painting was inspired by the work of Flora Yukhnovich, a British painter who pushes disrupted realism to a new level. After reading about her and pouring over her pieces, I felt like playing with paint and pushing the boundaries of realism myself. It was fun and freeing, and I plan to do more of it!
Ellis Creek in Petaluma has long been a favorite source of landscape painting inspiration for me, with its great variety of terrain, including marshes, ponds, grasses and distant hills, not to mention avian wildlife in the form of herons, egrets, swans, stilts, and many other winged species. It's an ever changing ecosystem there and I never get tired of it.
