Always from Life (II)

When I started using oil paints some twenty years ago I had grown tired of leaning over a drawing board working from photographs and low relief objects. I wanted to expand my horizons - to paint from life in real time. This is how I worked for the next two decades.

Then a few years back, frustrated by a lack of progress with my figurative work, I tried a couple of photo derived paintings.

Amy, oil on linen, 17" X 19",  2009

I'll call this a "hybrid". The mug, hand and cigarette pack were painted from life and the rest using a photo. It doesn't look half bad in this format. The problem for me was that working from a photograph I wasn't painting the person at all. I was painting a photograph of a person. I can't really verbalize the disconnect I feel toward these photo derived works. I can only say there was just no joy in approaching a painting this way.

This brief detour served to verify and strengthen my decision to work exclusively from life.