The year of 2009 was exciting to me as a painter.  I was allotted more time than usual to focus on my creative side and took advantage of that to paint when I could.  Coming into 2010, I now have more time than ever to focus on being an artist.  So that’s my New Year’s Resolution. I’m going to take my art seriously and work on promoting myself, showing my work, and frequently updating this blog with my current works. 

I will post more information in a day or so, but one exciting opportunity that has come up is the chance to show my work in the Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA Starbucks.  Paul inquired the other day about he and I showing our work.  They accepted!  We will hang some works on January 25th and we have the entire month of February to show them and put them up for sale.  This means I have quite a bit of work to do as a few of my most recent paintings have sold and others have been gifted over the holidays.  I’m taking this chance very seriously though.  Reworking this website is part of that.  I aim to make at least a painting or two a week.  And in these next few weeks, I’ll have to produce at a slightly greater pace too! 

The way I have started off the New Year is by making a replica painting.  It is not actually completed yet but above is what I have so far.  This is a reworking of a Kees Van Dongen painting “The Corn Poppy.”  It is my favorite painting that hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  The face of my woman is longer and I’ve yet to finish her hat, nor the mysteriousness of her eyes.  I want to do this painting justice and I will post the final painting when it’s completed.  It is a great learning technique to copy a master.  While I’m not much of a portrait artist, this painting got me in the mood for perhaps a coming self portrait.  Apparently, this is a frequently copied work of Van Dongen.  I guess others like it as much as I do.