Since this was my contribution to the Portland Art Center’s PDX Panels show, this portrait is on panel.  More often than not, I paint on stretched materials, so the board’s un-fabric-like behavior proved to be a challenge.  I work in layers with watered-down paints.  Since the panel refused to absorb the thinned paint, I was forced to re-evalute my process.

I find that changing my working conditions helps me to learn more about painting.  My bags have certainly taught me plenty, and, in the latter half of 2007, I finally got myself a digital SLR for photographing my subjects.  Without the restraints of film and processing fees, I started to take a good deal more photos of my subjects, and the kinds of images capture now are more dynamic than when I was using my father’s old (but beloved!) Pentax ME.  An artist’s tools are her-his most intimate teachers.