It Would be Natural

Abundance, 14 x 20

...to say I am a "floral" painter, or a "still life" painter, but I still like to think of myself as a "painter," period!
With that in mind, I recently booked one of my favorite Atlanta models, Annie Jefferson, to sit for one morning at my last two Alla Prima (supposedly still life) workshops.  This shift in expected subject matter turned out to be a success!  Without my forcing the participants to paint from the figure, all of them chose to do so for the morning session.
After all, we are translating light and form to the canvas, and it is almost irrelevant what the what of it is!  What IS important, at least to me, is the "buzz" I get from what I am seeing.
It's that response, when I am able to catch a bit of it in paint, that makes a painting more than the sum of its parts.

Annie at Atlanta Artists Center Workshop, June, 2014

Annie at the Art Loft, Workshop in Dahlonega, GA, June, 2014

Annie at Dianne's studio in Roswell, GA, for a private painting day, last year

La Parisienne, 24 x 20

  

(Thank you, Annie, for inspiring me and so many others)!

I feel that my subjects choose me rather than my choosing them... it's like a seed planted in my mind that develops gradually until the painting takes form. (David Band)