Harley and Freelee

13 x 17 oil on board

There's a health movement out there that is centered on fruitarianism.  That is, people who eat a diet of almost all raw fruit, with fruit, salad and greens at night.  I've been experimenting with following this lifestyle the last six months and I feel good and have lost weight. There are people on YouTube who make videos touting this way of living and these are two of them:  Durianrider (Harley Johnstone) and Freelee the Banana Girl. They're shown here at the Woodstock Fruit Festival which was all last week in New York. I'm thinking of doing a series of portraits of other gurus in the raw vegan movement. Not sure what I'll do with them but I'm trying to tie in my painting with other important interests in my life, and health is sure one of them :-)

Portrait of Meghan Morongova

16 x 12 oil on canvas board, NFS

  This is the second version of my commissioned portrait of photographer/teacher/model Meghan. The first version was tighter and less colorful and still needs work. I think this one looks more like her. She wears her very long hair in this Frida Kahlo-like style sometimes and I took some liberties with the haircolor and detail. She was here at my house posing and we talked most of the three or so hours and that was a new thing for me -- beginning and attempting to make good progress on a portrait while simultaneously talking with the model. I'm so used to painting a quiet model or doing a portrait from a photo but it was certainly more interesting, I'm just not sure it helped the first painting. This one will be on display in the gallery of the play Art Show/Model Show that opened in Austin, TX last night at the OffShoot. It is part of the Fusebox Festival and runs Thursday through Sunday for this and the following two weekends. Meghan is one of the producers of the show which we got to see tonight. The five member group poses and tells stories over an hour and the audience is encouraged to sketch them, while watching other artists down on the floor who are drawing and painting them. I was happy and honored to have three of my paintings up on the walls there amid those of some of my favorite Austin artists.

Yoga Time

5 x 7 oil on canvas (study)  SOLD

Several things came together to make me want to do this one today. First, yesterday I painted three sofas (very boring) and watched The Biggest Loser last night. Then I got a big kick out of a fun Rachel Renault painting this morning. Yesterday I also found photos of a clay sculpture I did in college of a figure with roughly this fluffy form so I based these women on looking at that. I have been doing a lot of small studies lately but not posting them; thought everyone might appreciate the break. :-)

Drink

5 x 7 oil on canvas

I'm doing value studies as I try to get back in the saddle. Recently I'm fascinated with what I've learned about hydration. The theory I heard is that all pain and disease are directly caused by chronic dehydration, and all are reversible without drugs (and with proper supporting diet and exercise). Supposedly after a certain age we don't realize we are thirsty until too late, and cells and related systems close down in order to manage the body's remaining water supply. So I think that after this value study I'll paint a water glass in color. This is our crystal pattern, Kildare by Waterford.