My FB friend Lynn Como published a photo of her two great-grandkids posing for a picture by sticking their tongues out, and it inspired me to make a painting in which that stuck-out tongue made sense. I initially painted the child against the plain/stark peachy-pink/orange background, and I really liked the rather surreal way the figure popped against that non-background, but then I thought, Oh! The tongue could be sticking out to catch a snowflake! and did a search of my stencils for something that could stand in for snow. It was a big decision to invade that pristine field with the stencil images, though. These are flowers, but they were stylized enough to work, I think. (Do you?) (I hope Lynn will forgive me "borrowing" her great-grandchild's image!)
This was a fun one to paint, and surprisingly didn't take a whole lot of time. I just laid in the base colors, and then advanced pretty quickly to details. Admittedly, I could have done a better job if I had painstakingly mimicked the knitting of the sweater and cap, but I chose to merely suggest some form to it and spend my time, instead, on the wonderful little face. The colors are so pure in children, and the peach background perfectly reflected the rather hectic color in the cheeks, brightened from being outdoors in the cold.
I'm trying to decide what to call it: Snow Day? First Snow? Taste the Weather? Or should I just call it by name (Nerai)?
For right now..."Snow"—pencil, acrylics, and stencil, painted on a 12x16-inch thin birch board.
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