Faces........we see faces everywhere we go. We may not know them but they are on a city street, on a bus going by, in a waiting room, at the theater, a wedding, a concert.........no matter where you go there are faces. They are all shapes and sizes. Some are framed with long flowing hair, some cropped hair, some bald and some a little bit of both. Faces indicate emotion and they can tell us from a glance if someone is extremely happy or extremely sad or just existing merely by the look on their face. They are a study in human behavior and expression. I am continually fascinated with faces, especially eyes. Ah the eyes, now there is where true emotion lies.
The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions. ~Cicero
When I meet someone I am not looking at body type or their clothes or what shoes they're wearing....I am looking in to their eyes and the smile on their face. I am looking at them and through them......IN to their eyes to find the connection to them and who they really are.
this is a piece I did with fabric a LONG time ago
So it is not surprising that in my art faces appear frequently. The thing about the faces in my art is that they are not always representative of the pure architecture that makes up a face according to the purists. The eyes may be placed wrong or a nose not shaded correctly or perhaps the lips are too big or too small. The thing is I am not painting from the school of optimal realism when it comes to bone structure and muscle or perfect placement. It is not my aim and never has been.
It comes from my minds eye...and how they begin to look at me when the drawing begins. Often times the eyes are quite large compared to the face itself and often times the entire head is quite large compared to the body or the shoulders. That's the beauty of ones own artistic vision in that it doesn't have to replicate something in every nuance to be considered a face.....or a flower......or a landscape or whatever the subject.
I don't sweat the fact I am not perfect at shading and considering light source or if the face is broken in to lines for absolute placement of the features. I love faces,and I am free with them because if you go look in to that crowd they are NOT all the same if you stopped to study them individually. That's why we aren't a bunch of clones walking around..........we are each unique therefore our artistic vision is unique.
So it will come as no surprise that my latest painting is a face. A unique face that doesn't have a creamy skin tone with apple cheeks. It is a celebration face........another type of Namaste face......the face of pure individuality surrounded by a very unique landscape. Acrylic on canvas it is 16"x20" and 1 1/2" deep. (I even took a belt sander to it!!!)
When you step back from a painting.......when you know you are done.......and you like the feeling it gives you........... that's everything!
I usually don't blog much on the weekend but BohoMan's birthday is Monday and we're going out that day.......so have a wonderful rest of the weekend and see you next week!
JAI HO!!!
Love,
Lisa
XOXOXO
Take time to look in to someones eyes!
