In spite of the harried afternoon, I’m quite pleased with this painting. Much of the credit, no doubt, goes to the fabulous personality of Msr. Beaujolais. Really, the painting is about the lips, and the cigarette/hand gesture. There are so many things that happened in the paint that I’m enjoying. I really like what happened with the transparency of the glasses. And I love the earring and how the earlobe dripped like warm silly putty right into the earring.

Some of the things that work are the way Msr. Beaujolais’ culottes and beret look velvet, that kind of worked out. I also like the highlights on the face and the neck. I like the red chair.
    The other things that are a bit different about this portrait are that I let some of the paint drip on the face and that I worked with the paint much, much thicker. I feel I need to go in with some light gray hight lights on his left leg (painting right), it’s too dark. Not sure if it’s just this photograph. I’ll look again tomorrow.
    We really did have to work quickly because I had a tight deadline for another appointment immediately following this painting. In fact, when we were “done,” I dropped my brushes, threw off my smock and ran out of my studio asking Msr. Beaujolais to lock the door behind him. I think he was a little surprised. I still had paint all over my hands and arms. I was not too late to my next appointment and I came back after and cleaned up my brushes and touched up the image a little, adding chest hair, darkening the mustache, and blending a few things here and there. Tomorrow I’ll get a better photo once it’s dry and up the painting will go for First Thursday.
    The chair I got at Goodwill this morning. I have a week to return it. Too bad I don’t have a props room. (or a barn! ;o) But I just don’t have the space to store it unless I figure out how to rig a pulley system on the ceiling and haul it up.

Love the lips.