Progress on "Mood Indigo"...

 Progress shot #1 (30x40)

I started with a simple line drawing in a thin wash over my pencil lines (which were scaled up on a grid from a smaller sketch). Then I erased the pencil lines and lightly stained the canvas with burnt sienna...

 Progress shot 2

The model I hired here is Amber, a professional jazz singer in the Portland area... The reference for the male figure came from photos of the late Mississippi Fred McDowell.

 Finished close up

Detail...

And now back to our program...

I just can't stay away from painting blues and jazz subjects...and I have no idea if anyone would buy such a painting, but they're going to have to pry that #6 flat Simmons Signature series hog bristol from my cold dead fingers before I give it up...

Tenor Sax (9x12)

These are more or less studies for possible larger pieces (or parts of larger paintings) but are O.K. to stand alone as small works. I'm both a music lover and an art lover, and the older I get, the more I appreciate the music of my parents generation and am inclined to explore that as subject matter.

Fascinating Rhythm (9x12)

Since my mother passed, I have repeatedly returned to the popular Samba influenced pop that was in the background when I was small (Astrid Gelberto, Sergio Mendez & Brazil 66, etc.) perhaps I'll venture into that genre for subject next... Interesting how much of the memory of our lives music can store and trigger when the timing's right.