Holy Smoke!

Holy Smoke 21" x 17"/ 53 x 43 cm

I recently finished this painting, Holy Smoke. It is actually a motif/idea I have worked on before, a couple of times. I felt a need to rework the image, chance the color scheme, as well as the way the figure was placed.

The inspiration for this painting, originally came from a picture in an old LIFE magazine I bought in Tacoma, WA, years back. Something makes me return to this photo of a very stylish, beautiful and relaxed woman, enjoying a smoke outside.

I added the wings and the play on words - and became quite taken by the image.

I guess some people paint the same hill, tree or lake multiple times. I suppose my thing is that I keep painting a smoking angel...

On the left: the old news paper picture of the smoking woman, who were to become an angel!

The 40th Face

Back in summer I made a few paintings, based on 1940s photos of women from LIFE magazine. I painted the faces from looking at photos, and then surrounded them with heavy pattern wall paper from roughly the same time period. I enjoyed making these small portraits with smiling or surprised faces, often taken from soap or toothpaste ads. They all measure 8” x 8”.

Overtime they became various studies of faces, and I started using more modern photos, which changed the feel and expression of the paintings.

Just this week I completed portrait # 40. I didn’t know I was going to do this many or how they would change overtime. I like them as individual portraits, as well as put together in a big block as the above photo. For now, I have decided to take a break, but may return to this format the future.

Women in old ads

The beginning of a ‘vintage’ portrait. The blue makes the skin color deeper and more interesting.

Recently I was looking through a stack of old (and basement smelly) LIFE magazines from the 1950s. I have always enjoyed looking through magazines from this time period, I like the esthetics of the time - and what his me on this day, was all the advertisement pictures of women, some photos and some drawings. What they all had in common (except of course from haircuts and the kinds of dresses) was that they all showed some strong (and at times odd) emotion on their faces. Some were looking at you in an overly coy or shy posture, others were extremely excited - obviously happy to show their husbands - as these came tired home from work - how they had just saved a significant amount of money by buying a certain brand of ham.

Some (quite a few) had big surprised eyes and a round red mouth, clearly taken by surprise by something. I have to say I loved these pictures!

I cut out some of them to use for later use, and I am recently working on a series of small square portraits, inspired by the women in the old ads. They all measure 8” x 8”, and are half collage and half acrylic. These sizes was what I had in store at the time - and I actually like the small intimate images.

When I paint a portrait or just a human figure, I always start on a light blue background. The blue is nicer to work on than a white foundation, but it also makes the faces deeper, the blue can be sensed through the skin color.

I will make a new post with the finished piece.