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Saturday, May 21, 2016

Faces In A Crowd

As artists, we train our eyes to notice details in everything -- buildings, trees, animals, fabrics, flowers and yes, human figures and faces -- everywhere.  Once this habit is established, it's hard NOT to look at the world as if we are planning a painting.
Taking crowd shots of people can be fun because it often results in some surprising stuff.  In my painting below, what started as a random crowd scene began to take on a narrative as I was painting.

Faces In A Crowd, Oil on Canvas
I suppose these folks are just out for a day of shopping at the mall.  Or are they?...look carefully at the guy on the left.  The camo hat, the reflective sunglasses.  He's noticing the viewer in an intense manner.  Could be a special agent.  And that lady in the trench coat -- is she with him?  Don't spies wear trench coats?  I'm just saying...

I wasn't planning to write this story.  I was only trying to paint the facts, just the facts.  But then it just wrote itself.  This sort of thing happens to novelists, I think.  There are a million stories in the city, and this might be one of them.






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