I’m going to backtrack a bit and write about a series of still life paintings I’ve been doing over the past 10 years.
This series started when I was without a clear direction for my next painting. I wanted to play and explore to find some inspiration. I gathered some objects from around my home. I forget all the items, but what turned out to be the key pieces were my wife’s herbal eye relaxer (that looked sort of like a child’s puppet) and a wooden box crafted by my old friend Jeff Lee.
Here is the first painting using those objects:
As I manipulated the objects on my drawing table, I became intrigued with the notion that the stuffed puppet could be a stand in for the viewer. It’s features were undefined; it looked a bit like a sheep, but it was impossible to really say what creature is. I thought by putting the puppet in a variety of poses and settings, it could express a range of human conditions and emotions.
This series has turned out to be my most popular. Folks who visit my studio are drawn to them, and always have questions and comments about the paintings. In my next posts I will talk about some of the paintings in this series.
My Life In Pencils & Paint 
i’ll look out for your posts.
An herbal eye-relaxer? What an intriguing concept…tell us more!
i like this.
I think I have fallen in love with that top piece – ‘The Yearning.’ It is stunning! I think if I were to walk into your studio, I’d find it very difficult to walk out again without it (in the nicest possible way!)
Hi, thank you for visiting my blog, and your kind words about ‘The Yearning’.
I appreciate your interest, please come back often to see what I’m up to.
Regards,
Dwayne