"Dandy"

5 x 7"

oil on panel
sold

Here's one of my favorite paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - a large portrait of the artist 'James McNeill Whistler' by the friend and fellow artist William Merritt Chase.  I've read when the two painters met, they became instant friends and both agreed to paint a portrait of each other.  They probably were trying to hone their portrait skills to compete with fellow painter John Singer Sargent who was all the rage at the time.

Chase presented Whistler with this finished painting, even inscribing in the upper left corner the words 'To my friend Whistler, Wm. M. Chase, London 1885'.  Chase painted this portrait honoring Whistler's low-key palette and painterly style - only Whistler was apparently offended, exclaiming it a 'monstrous lampoon' which started a rift between the two men for a long time.  It is believed Whistler destroyed his painting of Chase, never to be seen.

"How Bourgeois"

9 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

I painted this new piece during our snowstorm this past week - what a treat it was.  I know some of you are moaning and can't imagine snow being a treat at this point, but it's so rare here in the south.

I love this painting because of my favorite combo of colors - golds, blacks, greys and browns.  And I love the shadows.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, William Merritt Chase's portrait of the artists 'James Abbott McNeill Whistler' (left) and John Singer Sargent's portrait of the artist 'William M. Chase' (right) are seemingly looking down at the couple before them.

Please click here for a larger view.