"Oxidation" 5ft x 3ft

This piece is the end result of my first ever planned and provided-for photo shoot, using a professional camera/lighting setup/backdrop (all graciously provided by Mike Shane).  Before this, I would glean photo reference from my camera-phone and cheaper point and shoots…

If “Steve” was a big step for me technically, this painting was a giant leap as far as control of the “raw material” going into a painting…  The model was a friend of my younger brother, and was about as nervous as I was in the beginning.  I bought the flowers last-minute for some color, erected the backdrop just in time for her to arrive.

I took the first picture without looking into the viewfinder, figuring that it would be like anything else – once you get the first word, line, cut (or in this case: photo) out of the way, the rest would be easy…

After a few minutes of awkward direction, we found our rhythm.  She would pose and hold her breath, I would crack a joke and she would literally *burst* into laughter (a combination of the unexpectedness of the joke and the held breath lent the laugh an explosive quality).  Following that, a moment of self-conscious pulling-herself-together, then a magical fraction of a second where her face would be relaxed (neither posing nor laughing), her posture was confident, solid and I got the sense that I was truly catching a glimpse of her (there between the seconds).   When I took the photo that became my basis for the painting, I knew it would work immediately.  It was the only picture that made me stop the shoot temporarily to show both Mike and the model!

The end result is what you see here, a 5 foot x 3 foot canvas, named after the alchemical process of Oxidation.