Plenty of Matter

fresh one from a few days ago of the boy and his friend watching a moving on the computer.

It took me a few times to get a decent portrait of a twitter folks avatar.  I had to do less to achieve more.

Here is another self portrait I was alright with

The first two 30 second portraits came out on the first attempt.  The one of my son took 3 tries and when I sat down the next day in front of a mirror to do some self portraits I felt i’d lost it all together.

I kept rewinding and rewinding out of frustration and it wasn’t until almost an hour later I got something I’d felt was worth the effort.  

…and then my son as he watched ‘Mom and Dad Save the World’

The follow up was a portrait of my lovely wife as she reads. 

So I started doing 30 second portraits.  This first one is of my three friends from work.  All the drawings are done using the app Paper on an iPad Mini.

As much as I love to draw I do need to take a break from the medium every now and then. During these times I’ll pick up a paint brush, start a construction, or most commonly I turn to collage.

I enjoy the placement of objects and collage is a natural outlet that satisfies. Scanning through editorials, magazines and flyers looking for something to strike me reminds me of the scavanger hunts my mom used to send me on when I was a young boy.

‘mastercard’ 5x7 collage on cardstock

Drawn from a sketch I’d done in my molskine of Georgia while she was reading.

This became the first portrait I’d done for a year using pastels and another valuable addition to the many portraits I’ve done of my favorite subject.

‘Georgia Barnes’ 12x18 oil pastel on black paper

Drawn in 2007 on the front porch of my apartment in New Bedford while staring down my street.

I had just finished the PBS mini series The Elegant Universe, a scientfic journey into the world of string theory.

I found the idea of simple strings of energy that vibrate being the most basic structure of all things very sensical and beautiful on wanted to incorporate it into some works.

‘maxfield’ 14x17 pastel on paper