Wow -- Look At These Changing Portraits

Since I usually paint on really large canvases, I thought I'd try a tiny one -- 5 x 7 inches. Here is an optical trick.  If you paint big on a small canvas, it makes the size expand and vise versa.  Paint tiny and the canvas will appear very small.

I found this vidio of changing portraits and thought you'd enjoy seeing them.

 

Isn't that cool?

Damn Cat!

Hardy died in Dorchester, Dorset, on January 11, 1928. Eva Dugtale washed his body and prepared it for burial. Hardy's ashes were cremated in Dorchester and buried with impressive ceremonies in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. According to a literary anecdote his heart was to be buried in Stinsford, his birthplace. All went according to plan, until a cat belonging to the poet's sister snatched the heart off the kitchen table, where it was temporarily kept, and irreverently ate it.

This anecdote caught my fancy and stirred gruesome imaginings. To think that one’s body part would end up being snagged by the fangs of a house cat and gulped in small mouthfuls into its belly are horrifying.



Worse yet, are the superstitions that the human heart is the seat of love and devotion, and should be cut out of the body and buried it a tiny tin casket with kittens playing on the top. A most Victorian mind set.




Hardy, as you remember, wrote several novels, but caused such an outcry of protest with Tess of the D’Ubervilles (1891) andJude the Obscure (1895) that he turned to poetry for the rest of his life.

I have painted Hardy and the family kitty for my own amusement and am selling it online at http://MoxyFoxDesigns.etsy.com.

The Glance of the Eye

I think that somewhere in my lineage there must have been a collection of portrait painters. I am subconsciously drawn to faces. Pick up a pen or brush and a face is what emerges through my hand to the blank surface. I have no idea where these people come from.

Speaking of faces, many of my works are of beautiful women. The media must have a lot to do with that. Did you know that many men can barely speak when they are around a beautiful woman? Their body language gives them away every time. Open-mouthed staring is the first option. If they can muster the courage to speak it will probably be something utterly inane.

Because beautiful women are used to being treated differently than their less lovely sisters, they are relieved when a man speaks to them without fear. And who are those men? Guys with high intelligence, personal success and life goals. They don’t have to be handsome – just fascinated by life and pursuing lasting interests.

In any case, count your blessings and embrace your genetic heritage.


“One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson