Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Young Woman with Red Hair


"Young Woman with Red Hair"
By Andrew Daniel
Oil on canvas
Available through the artist.

I painted this piece as an exercise in loosening up my approach to portraits and using more expressive paint. It was really interesting for me to push my sensibilities with the paint. Several times I thought I was close to being done, only to find that the painting by Carolyn Anderson that I was consulting for help in problem solving showed more variety, so I kept at the process of pushing the painting further. In the end, I think I learned a lot about the range of possibilities the paint can offer, I also learned that variety in paint application can bring a certain vitality and immediacy to the painting. Tho I probably won't make a practice of painting this thick all the time, I do have a stronger sense in the importance showing the "artist's hand" in the painting.