and Then the Phone Rang...

I wanted to give the feeling of staying up all night waiting for news about a loved one, then in the last hours of night the phone rings. This image happens right then, before she picks up the phone. She has already been crying in anticipation as you can tell by the slight reddish color in her eyes.

So many influences went into this painting: It was not long after my heart attack. I still remembered almost being highjacked in Kenya. Walking by Becca when she was looking at a Facebook page, I saw this photo of her friend Suzi that was almost completely black from being very underexposed, but those brillliant white dots in her eyes really hit me. Becca said that Suzi often makes this expression, but I saw impending grief. I was tired of painting highly detailed works and wanted to use my brush in a fast efficient manner, so that is the way her hair is painted. My nephew Dave had been painting light colors onto a black canvas, so I wanted to try it. I was working for Apache Print (see my graphic design portfolio) and saw that black can be created with cyan, magenta, and yellow. So to paint a background of anxiety I wrinkled the canvas and layered the three colors in transparent glazes. I used straight black for shadows. The face was built up with layers of raw sienna and black. The real challenge was making the lamp look out of focus. To do that I used layers of transparent yellow. Just blending it showed too many brush strokes to allow the out of focus look.

The painting was chosen to be in an exhibit hosted by the State of Minnesota about victims of violence. It's still for sale, but note that it looks somewhat darker in life. In fact without good light, all you can see is the lamp! Then when light hits it the face just jumps out!