12 Paintings, Same Model

I started painting when my youngest child was a baby, so it's easy to remember exactly how long I've been at it -- 28 years. My first painting (included here) was of her lying on her back on a blanket on the floor of the Mexican studio where I took my first class. The studio was in a repurposed Spanish-style convent, hence the arches in the background. The edge of the thick gray paper on which I learned to paint is visible too.

Jump forward to 2015. I was in Rockland, Maine needing to ship my first large painting. I didn't know where or even how to do it -- it was 36x36 inches. So I went into a gallery and asked the two women working there some questions. They were young, sophisticated, and helpful. So I decided to bring my painting in to show them. "What do you think?" I asked. And one answered, "I don't know. I'd have to see some of your previous work." That response threw me. The painting I was showing them was one of my first geometric abstracts. All my previous work was realistic. I wasn't sure how it would be helpful.

However, over time I've realized that some people assume artists make abstract or geometric paintings because they don't know how to paint realistically. Maybe I even thought that once.

Putting together this collection of portraits and figures, it's funny to see the little abstract painting of baby Alice which I also painted the week I learned. I was practicing mixing colors within each shape, and I couldn't help but use my baby as a model. Only now can I see it was the kernel of an idea that would take shape years later.

This is the geometric painting I brought into the gallery that day.

Here is a link to many more portraits and figures.