Saturday, August 1, 2009

My Reservoir of Possibilities

I just discovered my "reservoir" of possibilities: an overstuffed folder filled with pictures torn from magazines. I spent about an hour culling down the pile. What's left are about 18 portrait candidates, ranging from David Bowie to Georgia O'Keeffe to Johnny Cash to Walter Cronkite to Daniel Day-Lewis.

As I reviewed my 18 possibilites, I realized that my style has truly evolved. I started years ago by mimicing
Patrick Nagel. His work was incredible and perfectly captured the sexiness and energy of the 80's. He died too young. But now I have gravitated to faces with more character. Wild hair. Wrinkles. Zesty expressions. There's one of Keith Richards that's begging to be produced.

Heck, with that criteria, he may be my masterpiece.

1 comment:

  1. IMHO you have transcended Nagel by capturing the humanity of your subjects. Nagel was hot, but his range was limited and sensuality will only take you so far. His work is elegant, but after awhile a Nagel was just another Nagel, that spoke to your instincts but said nothing about the women he depicted. Sometimes I got the feeling that he wasn't even using models, just idealizing. Style without substance. Ron, your work is real.

    ReplyDelete