"Bacon"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

A new addition to my series ArtistZ - featuring one of my favorite paintings by Francis Bacon.   It's tough to pick a favorite of Bacon's, I suppose this piece has a figure sitting and I often paint that subject.  And I dig those colors together, the mustard-gold, navy blues and that neon green in the top third.

One of the first artbooks I bought, years ago, was of Francis Bacon's work - I was very into the illustrators Brad Holland and Marshall Arisman - both painted strikingly-dark subject matter, a bit eerie, perfect for illustrating dark stories.  Those years I dreamed of being an illustrator.  Bacon was very much the same vein, but his compositions and large blocks of color around figures, his distorted figures, his macabre, nightmarish works really grabbed me.  

This painting by Bacon featured in my painting is one of many studies of Peter Lacy, whom Bacon had a tempestuous relationship with until Lacy's death in 1962.

Meself

12 x 9"

oil on masonite
nfs

Chalk this one up to watching a documentary on Francis Bacon. He used oils for what they were meant for. Each stroke is deliberate, each color is decided. He said something about embracing the happy accidents that happen when the stroke of one color meets another. When I look at one of his paintings, I can imagine where he began and where he ended - those are the paintings that inspire me the most. That's what thrills me about Lucian Freud's work. They made me want to paint when I was a little girl and still do. Perhaps I'll do a self portrait in the beginning of every year, from now on.