Ballerina “At Rest” painting in oil

This is one of the paintings I just entered in the HCAA show, I realized I had never posted it and it was kind of hard to see in my last post. It’s 8″x10″ oil on linen canvas mounted on birch panel.

Here I was trying to paint a figure yet still make sure the big shapes in my painting worked in an abstract way. I think we, as artists, all do that anyway, but the “design” of a painting is very important to me and that breaks down to abstract shapes. After the abstract shapes are in place, the rest is just about choosing color and then deciding how much finishing or detail will be added.

I painted this back in March and then stuck it in a closet. I’m so glad I pulled it out because looking at it reminds me how much fun I had painting a ballerina. My daughter has a friend who is truly a ballerina and she posed for me. It might be time to call her agian. OH! I had better do that before she goes off to college too!