Terrier Pup

Alright, I'm back to painting now. Here's my latest.

Terrier Pup, 24x18", $300 (click for larger image)

Painted this one late last night - took me maybe three hours, all told. Felt like only an hour or less the way it just came together. Painted it from a photograph of a friend's dog (though I did not bother making it look exactly like the dog . . . same breed and basically the same as the photo, but the owner might not recognize it as their dog, that's all).

One thing that has kept me from getting back into painting [perhaps] is the big unanswered question in my mind: What should I be painting? Both subject-matter-wise and style-wise, but mainly the problem of style. My paintings have a definite style, in terms of "my brushstrokes", "my sensibilities", "my color balance", or whatever, but have always varied greatly in what I might call "artificial style" - where I am always trying out new ideas or styles, always changing things up in that regard. Anyway, I finally put aside the idea of style . . . deciding that the majority of my paintings share a certain style that I tend toward anyway, and that's what I should paint. As in this painting, there is a certain amount of messiness to things - lots of movement within major shapes, lots of busy-ness going on. A trope of mine that one might call "wessiness", where the History of the painting is evident, where various layers-beneath-layers show through, giving the final layer a more interesting, exciting aspect.

So, that question solved in my head, it's on to subject matter . . . for that, I'll just take it painting by painting.