It’s not all about reality

Posted on | June 8, 2009 |

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

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