New on the easel

Been working on a new kind of series lately, of pieces that make you just "feel" them. This painting is obviously still in the construction phases yet, but I wanted to share the early stages with you. It is an oil painting and I roughed in the little girl or boy, then laid a background down. The little girl/boy will hopefully be done no later than this Sunday, but if it takes longer, that's okay too.
It needs some more refinement yet but the essence of this child is there. She will have long curls cascading down her back, or he will have a pony tail, when finished.
I know what I "feel" when I look at this child, Freedom, and describable joy. I'd like to know what it makes you feel. What should his/ her name be? What name shall we give the painting?

Interpretive Art, first stage

My friend Michele Lee and I are thinking about teaching a class soon at 16 Main, studios and gallery. The basis of this class would be to exercise the right brain and pull out your creative energies. To do this, the first step in the process will be to stain water color paper with either watercolor paint or food color. Either one works great. I won't go into too much detail, but just try and push you over into creativity. So, the first step after staining the paper, is to find the picture. You can facilitate this by using Matts of various sizes to help see the images in a framed setting. In this first one, I see humming bird descending into a flower.
In this one I see blue birds

And finally in this one I see gladiolas.
The next step in the process is Michele's gig. To teach the students to then, paint the picture, fill in the background and bring the details to life. For this phase she will teach in acrylics. By the close of class, the students should have a completed painting.
I told you what I see in the images, but I am very curious to hear about what you see!

Jazz Art Competition

Gonna be a Jazz Art Competition in town to be judge by Face Book viewers.
I thought I'd enter this Billie Holiday painting, "The Jazz Singer".
She's done in black and white and all shades in between. I don't know what got into me when I painted her. I did 3 different poses of her, stretching through different times in her life. I was like, "Mesmerized" by her raw talent and beauty. Fabulous artist with a bumpy history, just like the rest of us.
This one is done in oil and measures 16"x16", 1 1/2 gallery wrap with black on the sides.