Onward

14 X 14 X 1.5" OIL ON WOOD PANEL

I've been hanging onto this photo of Lyn Slater for a while, @iconaccidental on Instagram if you're not following her. Something about it just struck me and I can't leave it alone. Those are always the portraits I know I want to do.

It's the coat, the composition, her stride, her determination, that shock of Andy Warhol hair. Or all of those things. Any number of other things that are unconscious or implied. It's just a feeling that won't leave, that impulse to paint a model or a specific photo or location that I see. Sometimes I just don't know what draws me to a portrait. In this case it might just be the person herself.

The turn of her feet interested me a lot in the original photo. Such a small detail, the way that forward toe catches the light says a lot about her stride, her momentum. I wrestled with them a bit in the original drawing and then again when I painted it. I loved her stride, it was important. The way the light hits her face seems contemplative to me. Painting is also very much about the paint to me and the edges and I love the lost edges of her leg. She seems to be lost in the city and her thoughts and that is echoed as her leg is lost and found again in that wall.

Lyn is an inspiration to me and to nearly a million followers on Instagram. I really enjoy her feed, her style and artistic sensibility. I'm inspired by other artists but also by many different types of creative people and Lyn is definitely one of the people that inspire me.