My latest painting is of my paternal grandfather and is called Out By the Gourds. He was a quiet man with a stern face and who was literally born in a log cabin in Oklahoma Territory. He died when I was a child. My primary memory of him was of him tending his Eden-like garden, which grew all sorts of delights like boysenberries, carrots, tomatoes and these massive gourds. He would dry the gourds by a tree in the middle of the yard. The one time I remember him angry with me was, in a fit of youthful enthusiasm, I accidentally smashed a long banana-shaped gourd against the tree. The photo that inspired this painting was taken under that same tree. He more or less had the same expression on his face in every picture I’ve seen of him.
I thought that this was going to a quick portrait. I went in, Alice Neel style, without an under drawing. Of course, Alice Neel became Alice Neel after painting for decades. I still have a lot to learn. It took a really long time for the painting to finally gel and tell me what it needed. Fortunately, oil paint takes a long time to dry. You can push it around the canvas until you’re done.
Below is a video I made of this painting’s long torturous process.