Walking through a St. Charles neighborhood, there were few places where houses were not dense enough to block the view. However, we kept walking around, discovering a park that was nice, but the best view was a vacant lot on a hill, where one could see the city beneath, over the rooftops of communities. We loved the view from that spot, (although we did not go up to the hill because it was marked as privately owned). A space with a view. That background is suggested here …though not detailed, the feeling is there. Space. A clear space. I love the feeling of freedom in open spaces.
The raven, of course, is Jack. He has never been to St. Charles except in our hearts, and our son has only been here once, except in our hearts. He was standing in his kitchen when I took the photo, with his cell phone. A view of sorts. He also has a pleasant outlook in his life now, and I find he and Jack have a great degree of intelligence and basic joy in their lives.
And since our son and our Jack the raven are some of my favorites, I saw no problem bringing all those pleasant attributes together into one painting, titled “A Bright Outlook”.
“A Bright Outlook” – 24″x 30″ – Oil ©2023
The painting is on a canvas with 2 other paintings under it, so it has the added interest of varied textures. It seems most of my life I have painted with some sort of green underpainting before a portrait, but for this one, I began with warm colors and stayed warm to go with his red hair. I use several brands of paint, recently enjoying “blue black” from Rublev and a Mussini “juane brilliant” as well as others beautiful colors. It’s fun to try new paints. Sometimes in working these days, I might forget what I’m doing a little bit or things like that, but I don’t worry about it like I used to.
Also, I discovered I have a tendency to use brushes down to their nubs. I don’t think I want to do that any more. It’s fun to have a nice new brush or two. Live it up.
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