Story concept

I am always interested in the image and what story it can tell. The above image was a desire to do something with a graphic look, using a minimal palette to create a moment.  These exercises are fun, and being a story artist, I sometimes think that one could write a compelling story starting with an image. I suppose it is like a writer who could well write a story starting with a compelling sentence.

Recent painting

A recent painting entitled 'Woman at Prayer '.  I have always liked the stark look of the Spanish Baroque paintings of Francisco Zurbaran. Many of his works reflect the new Counter Reformation ideals of the Catholic arts to portray the sacred with the importance on the figure in the forefront.  His wonderful paintings of St. Francis of Assisi certainly show this mindset. All fluff and unnecessary background imagery is to be discarded if it does not support the figurative subject.  The paintings were to inspire devotion to the mysteries of the Sacred with little mind to the earthly environment which passes so quickly.