Right now I'm spending time focusing on the human figure. Thankfully, some of my favorite models conveniently happen to live with me.

At some point, my children will become bothered by the fact that I am constantly staring at them studying how lights, shadows, and color transitions fall across their faces. For now, I'm taking advantage of these young muses as much as they will let me.

All that to say that I've been painting people these days.

Why? When I look at the paintings that most inspire me, historical and contemporary, they often contain figurative work. Clearly, it's hard to look away from any work by Sargent.

I've been asked to do a number of commissioned portraits containing gestural figures and more closeup portraits and so I feel a responsibility to learn the techniques that will bring my work to a new level.

It turns out that observing the work of old masters and some brilliant contemporary painters has become a new obsession.

I keep discovering new artists that I admire and have been taking trips down to the National Gallery of Art and National Portrait Gallery. One of the benefits of living minutes from Washington, D.C. is having access to these national treasures that are totally free to the public.In my own painting practice, the challenge is to connect to my subject beyond representation and likeness. I love that I can use my time at the easel to explore my subject's character and spirit through paint. I even find myself using the opportunity to do my own self examination and can see myself in the work - connecting to a shared human experience. If my painting can offer something close to that to its observer, then I have really communicated something beyond likeness.

I enjoyed exploring texture and light to create the mood I was after in "Daydreaming" (above). This painting will be on display at the upcoming Paint the Town Labor Day Show from September 3-5, 2021.

Of course color, context, and all the other formal attributes of a painting can and will evoke a certain energy to a piece. Finding my artistic voice through portraiture and figurative work is an exciting place to be in my current artistic journey.

Here is a small color study that I completed to prepare for my next larger portrait. I may do something a bit different with the background. I can't wait to dig into it soon!