What a fabulous model Keith was. He came to open studio last month and I just fell in love with his features. He readily agreed to pose and here he is. He was a pleasure to paint.

I find this painting deceptively complex. Of the painterly qualities, I love the face and his right hand, the shadows on the ground and the luminosity of the wall, the faded highlights in the jeans. Compositionally, I love how he almost looks like he’s pushing the wall to the right. And the light switch seems Baconesque to me. I love the depth in behind him and his pose, the whole thing just works for me. Is he coming in where its light or staying in the dark? Is the sun setting, because the light is golden in the room he may enter. Does he not have permission to enter? Does he have heavy news? Is he tired? Doesn’t he have a beautiful face? And I love the way his arms are just draped down by his sides. He’s also bow-legged. I don’t know what it is about bow-legged people, does anyone else love that? Maybe I should paint a series just on that! LOL
    There’s some sort of commentary with the light switch. He has some relationship or lack of, with the light switch. Like he’s saying goodbye and doesn’t want to turn off the light? And the light switch just jumps out at you, screams at you really. Takes more attention than he does. He’s so still and quiet and the inanimate object is so loud.
    I’d like to paint more paintings of this calibre.
    On Monday I noticed how thick the paint was, proportion issues and issues with rushing. Today I corrected those things. I did a thumbnail beforehand, played with cropping, and took my time with the canvas sketch. It paid off.