Painted Sketches

1-3-11
For the residency, I agreed to paint four large paintings during the year. It's coming along just fine, I have one more to go, but for the last few weeks I've started a new series of work. I knew that there were more folks that wanted to get involved and sit for some work but they didn't have the time to commit to a large piece, so I started doing those sketches shown below.  Now, I've got the same people sitting for just a few more hours and I'm painting these mini portraits. They are coming along great, they're lively, fresh and surprisingly true to the sitter. The down side is that I almost like them better than the longer, more drawn out work. uh oh. So, what now? I've started going back into the larger paintings with a new eye and energy. I want to breath new life into them so they have the same sense of vigor.  It's a lot of pressure for the last leg of the residency, start a new branch of work and reinvent what I've already started.  I can never do things the easy way.