She Wore Her Party Dress, 11x14

She Almost Broke Her Face.

Sitting on the edge of a couch, her hands on the edge of the cushions to prop herself up, head canted and turned to one side and Smiling for several hours.....I was waiting for her face to develop fissures.  In all the time I have done portraits there has never been a model who could broadly smile and keep the same exact pose for hours without even a whimper.  Her name is Kathy.  Super Model.

So it seems I'm on another of my 'kicks' that I periodically go through.  This one is about painting using just three primary colors.  I think I'm trying to get a sense of color compatibility and possibility.  Cad Lemon, Cad Red Medium and Ultramarine Blue in this one.

Most three pigment painters I have seen end up with paintings that are somewhat gray, lacking in vibrancy, in my opinion.  I was looking through my library the other day and pulled out one of Kevin McPherson's books in which he talks about the three or four pigment palette.  His paintings weren't gray.  Zorn's paintings, using an even more limited palette, aren't gray.

So I'm giving the whole thing another look and working on my color vocabulary.