New Painting

"Nunez", Watercolor on Paper, 11"x15", $125.00

Recently, I have been working with Watercolors and I am beginning to think that it is now my favorite medium. I like the level of realism, control and ironically the spontaneity that comes with watercolor. These elements are truly fascinating and I find them to be beneficial in this new series that I am painting.

The Series

As you saw with the last two paintings - Reminisce and New Generation - I have done portraits with developed backgrounds and not the typical soft gradient background typically associated with portraits. In the past I would find myself doing the soft gradient backgrounds and the emotional effect (the ability to emotionally connect between the viewer with sitter) seemed to be lost, as if they were looking at an idealized image of the person. I wanted to really breakout of that and show honest and real people with real stories.

Nunez

In my new work titled Nunez I wanted to really show emotion and the best way to do that is by the look on his face and more importantly his eyes. I have painted Nunez before and used his image in politically charged themes trying to showcase his Dominican heritage while also sharing his story about being an American Service Member. I don't know if I had achieved those effects because they were either too overt or the background was an afterthought. As I pondered this I thought about backgrounds and decided to paint in the background a view of Iraq from one of the Towers in Iraq that we were posted on together. I wanted to showcase a little bit of a story but not too overt and more importantly a background that was not an after thought. I wanted a background that played a nice balance that helped to show my experiences with Nunez and his experiences in Iraq. In the end I think I accomplished more in doing less, and that is what art is about: problem solving.