In some ways, I think this may be “Sinuous” seen from the front; in others, it seems completely unrelated—and in case it’s not obvious from that statement, I’ve been spending altogether too much time writing the past year and a half, too little painting.

     J.’s pose is closely similar, as is the vagueness with which I handled color; the techniques involved, however, are wholly different. “Sinuous” was first and foremost an exercise in line, whereas the edges in this study are partly an after-thought, partly an accumulation of lucky accidents. Color came second, and though it’s not apparent, brush work was this painting’s reason for existence.

     In the occasional mornings of painting writing permits me these days, I’ve been trying to recapture and/or reimagine and/or reinvent the loose, broad brush work in “Hayley in Light and Shadow” in this section and “Brushes, Pens, Marbles” in the Things section, then apply it to portraiture. If this study looks nothing like those two, it’s simply because I wasn’t happy with the initial brush work, which felt too self-conscious, even labored, and so went over it with smudging brushes.

What do you think?