Joe and Clawfeet

Both paintings are on 8"x10" panels. Joe was a three hour sketch done with my Tuesday night figure group. I've been trying to keep my procedure as simple as possible to get as much of a portrait as I can in a three hour time span. I guess the models must think I'm crazy because there they are posing nude and I'm painting their portrait. I've always felt the portrait was my achilles heel in my figure paintings so I've decided to really push myself harder in that direction.

The still life was something that I observed just hanging out underneath another setup and I decided to go for it. I'm trying to be more open and less programmatic about my process. I don't want to mix up my inspiration in a lab vile and hope to have the right formula. My focus is on the things that I love about painting and to make that the subject of the paintings, with that in mind, it really doesn't matter what I paint.