Snake Lady

On Curves, Contours, and One Woman’s Glorious Back

As you’ll see, I am a fan of curves and spirals.

The image below is an unfinished painting of Snake Lady, while the second is the final version. She’s fairly typical of two aspects of my paintings:

(1) I’m drawn to painting women, because I find the female figure with all its curves and roundness more compelling than the more linear male form. That said, I’m always up for a challenge, so from time to time I paint men or boys, and I enjoyed painting both of the following images:

In the above painting, “Two Fluid Men,” the guys strike me as gay, though I didn’t plan it that way. (But neither did I not plan it that way!)

In the next painting, “Mother and Son,” I wanted to convey sorrow, an emotion which many years ago Barry and I agreed was one of our favorites, like rainy afternoons or minor chords in music. Because I’m much more attracted to painting joy and excitement, this was unusual for me.

Here are two more paintings where I was working with compassion and tears. The images are not that different, but I like the woman’s ringlety silver hair and hand more in the first.

(2) I avoid painting representationally, that is, true to life, because my sense of perspective sucks! I’ve learned to draw some objects better, like stairs, but I either intentionally paint “off,” or I paint the object from an angle where my lack of ability isn’t obvious, like when I avoid drawing a person’s face, which in my case is the ultimate challenge. Here, for example, in “I’d Die for Her Back!,” I painted the woman from behind to avoid dealing with her face. (Hey, it’s one solution!)

In the next watercolor, “No Banned Books,” I painted another back I like:

(In order to better my ability to paint human faces, I’m signing up for an online class on that subject.)

A word about drawing vs. painting. I don’t like drawing, because I find it tedious. I usually have to draw an object over and over before I’m semi-satisfied with the result, and I get bored. Also, the look and sensation of drawing are less appealing to me than the swirliness of saturated paint. I do like gray, though, and I have several shades of gray pens IO enjoy using after the paint dries.

So if any of you want to try a human form, I suggest 1) draw from the back; 2) unless you want the challenge of hands (good luck!), either hide them under something (like the front of the body), or sketch the body way over towards the side of the page, so you don’t have to deal with at least one of the hands. Anything goes!

Hasta la proxima!