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December 03, 2005

Whom do I paint?

“Can you paint anyone?” Jo asked.
“No.” I want to reply, then: “yes,” then I drop the speech marks.

I can paint anyone, though the results are not always what I’m looking for. I don’t want to paint just anyone. I am very interested in painting certain people. And not so interested in painting others. And there was a woman in the supermarket this morning whom I had absolutely no interest in painting whatsoever.

It’s about finding someone who can give me what I’m looking for in a painting. This is not always easy because the people I want to paint don’t always want to be painted. That is very frustrating.

When I met Jo’s boyfriend I knew I wanted to paint his face. There was so much there; so much history, life, sadness and energy. So we started today:

andreas-00.jpg

And the good thing is we talked and talked, all about the way things are. Very interesting. And while we were talking I made a few marks on this piece of paper with this black stuff in my hand. And you should never start a sentence with and but always start a portrait with the ears.

andreas-01.jpg

A truly snuck up on drawing.

Posted by john at December 3, 2005 02:38 PM

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