Bad Paintings

 Some time ago, maybe seventeen years or so, I took an art class where every week a different model would pose and we furiously painted portraits in oils. I then hid the paintings in the garage and promptly forgot about them.

The teacher painted in a photorealistic style and described my paintings as "decorative", which was pretty derogatory at the time. After a couple of months I realized that I didn't really like painting portraits that much and quit. But looking at these made me feel like perhaps I might like to paint people again.

It also made me realize that it is okay to experiment and fail, as long as you get back to it and keep trying.

Marilyn

 This model worked at Medieval Times and had long hair. The words around the edges are from a poem by John Donne, "At The Earth's Imagined Corners" and talks about angels blowing their trumpets to raise souls from death.

“The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
~ Robert Henri