Day 30: I'm Done

Last day!! I did this one last week, knowing this would be a busy one. I REALLY want to paint people. What better person to practice on than myself? I won't be insulted by whether or not I capture my likeness perfectly.

I'm Done, oil on canvas, 5" x 7"

It's a good exercise in paint mixing, too. I'm getting faster at mixing colors, and getting the ones I want more consistently. I still use a guide that Ed Burke gave us in a class years ago for mixing skin tones. Ed was a wonderful painting teacher who helped me UN-learn a few things, too.


Here are the other people I painted in this round. Little Red Hoodie is my sister Jeanie on Cape Cod, around age 2 or 3. I didn't quite capture her likeness, or those pinchable little round cheeks, but I still like it.

Jeanie, Cape Cod, age 2 or 3

Little Red Hoodie, oil on canvas, 5" x 7"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




















This is my mom below, painted from a b&w photo, colorized, you might say. I really love how this one came out. I  enjoy trying to capture light. This one has many memories and stories connected to it: Mom's habit of twisting her hair around her finger, the house we lived in at this time, and how she felt about it. "Even a dachshund
looks down on me in this kitchen!" The house was built on a steep hill, and the kitchen windows were eye-level to the ground. The cafe curtains she doubtless made, and the washer to her right that she had me sit on once to keep it steady during the spin cycle. The window where, she told us, my brother Jeff ran back to on his way to his first day in kindergarten and cried, "I don't want to go!" Mom, at a loss for words, replied, "You have to! It's the law!" Adult Jeff, hearing this story, replied, "Hmmm, and I've had trouble with the law ever since!"

2 Grove Street, oil on canvas, 5" x 7"

And, finally, Jeff. This one is for a show about addiction and recovery, and all that surrounds these life-altering things. I had to write a piece about this painting, which brought up so many memories and emotions.

Love One Another, oil on canvas, 16" x 20"

 

Love One Another

Few among us have escaped being affected by addiction in one way or another. My brother Jeff suffered a serious motorcycle accident in his late twenties. He was prescribed painkillers, which accelerated his alcoholism and drug addiction. He died at 31. Jeff was stubborn, defiant, and rebellious. Jeff was creative and talented. He was also smart, witty, and devastatingly handsome.

He was in early recovery when he died. I wish I had understood that addiction is a disease, and had more compassion for what he was going through. I wish I had been able to express forgiveness while he was alive for what he put his loved ones through.

After Jeff passed away, an unknown woman created a quilt for him with the words Love One Another stitched into it. Perhaps she understood this better than I.