It’s not all about reality

I painted this one from a picture I took before they took their shirts off. The day wasn’t this chilly looking; that’s just how I interpreted this portrait. I put a lot of myself in my paintings. They aren’t just camera-like reproductions of reality. I know I am good at capturing people’s likenesses, even without a photo to work from. After all, I’ve heard it all my life, people always say, why, that looks just like him! You’ve really captured his likeness. (Or ‘her’, although for some reason I mostly paint male portraits.)
I wish people would spend a little more time looking at what else is going on in the paintings. They are different from each other the same way that I am different every day. I go into a kind of trance when I’m painting. It’s like my mind is completely not thinking but at the same time I’m kind of burning inside with an almost physical memory or experience of my subjects. It’s a kind of non-verbal conversation, sometimes even an argument. I have heard myself shouting out loud at times, which scares my cat. Those paintings don’t come out so well. But when in the fever-trance state, my feelings flow freely and so does the paint. These paintings I am most happy with — and they are the ones that sell, too.
So anyway, you can see these two boys were acting awfully sassy even this early in our encounter. The camera brought them out. And yet when I was in the middle of this painting I think I was feeling blue because it’s been two weeks now since we met and I’m discouraged. I don’t think they’re coming back.
But they were just two boys. There is a whole summer ahead and plenty of people to photograph and paint. That’s what I do. I tell myself I’m lucky. I’m happy. I’m not going to lose any sleep over two boys.
Peace, Patrick

Paint: lots; boys: lost

Xavier & David #2
It was a busy week in the studio and I’m really happy with the work, but I found myself feeling more and more frustrated each day because no matter what time I went or how long I lingered, the two boys I met last time failed to grace the beach with their presence again.
It’s not that they promised they would, or even said anything about it, it’s just that after I’ve spent intense, creative time in the studio studying every detail of their photos and laboring to bring my vision of them to the canvas, I feel like I almost know them. Or at least their outer selves … I can talk about a dozen different shades of skin tone! But I can’t help fantasizing actually getting to know them, if that’s not too silly to even contemplate. They were so friendly; underneath their shyness, they were alarmingly charming.
I shouldn’t let their lack of a return appearance spoil the beauty of the initial one. It was, apparently, inspiring.  I am practically in a fever of creativity pouring out paintings surprising even to me in how well they express their likenesses. I can’t wait to finish more and post them. Back to work!
Peace, Patrick

2 new models

Xavier and David #1
I went down to the beach in our little seaside resort town as I do almost every day. Some days I go early, some days not until evening. I’m always looking for subjects to paint. Even as a child I had a talent for painting, and I live in this place because it’s so pretty and full of beautiful scenes to paint.
I’m good at landscape scenery, but what I really like most is portraiture. I’m drawn to the beach scene because you can see more of the person you might like to paint.
Last weekend I met two boys I hadn’t seen before, David and Xavier. They were interested in my camera and let me take their picture. I had my new Nikon D3. Their fascination bordered on awe. They treated it like a magical, mysterious thing from another planet or something. I hadn’t thought there are people walking around who’ve never seen a camera. The shorter of the two, Xavier, seemed to think the magic box captured not just his likeness but a living part of him that now lived inside the device. I had to explain how it works at least twice. I let them hold it and the solidity seemed to reassure them.
I had first noticed David, the taller of the two, but later when I looked at the pictures I thought Xavier had the more interesting face. Anyway, here’s the first painting I did of them. I’m working on another one, more of a close-up, and will post it as soon as I finish.
Peace, Patrick