Logan
June 18th & 19th, 2012
Tewksbury, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(nfs)

I decided to try a new brush that I have while waiting for my knives to arrive. I also thought I might like to try painting a dog or cat, in real time, as a precursor to trying a live portrait sometime. I set everything up and followed the dogs to a spot they seemed liable to stay in for a while. I gave them each a long-chewing bone, which I figured would keep them immobile for at least an hour. I began to mix up my colors, and by the time I was ready to go, the dogs were choking down the last bits of their chews and off to examine the world. So I thought I’d try painting the grass, and wait for them to come back. Painting the grass with a brush wasn’t fun. I kept at it but kept failing. Then the dogs came back, and about 5 times, I got their bodies blocked in, about to inflict some detail, when they got up and left. Eventually it all got so frustrating, and the canvas so ugly, that I got angry and let fly – abandoning the brush and using an old knife, and using a dog picture I had on my phone for structure and the dogs themselves for colour and inference.