Tell your clowns to Shut-up

This is "Big-Top Billie" 16 x 20, and the last clown out of the car. I'm finding these clowns communicate a bit too well.....so its time to move on.

The Ringmaster

This is "Kirby" 16 x 20. He is kind of the ringmaster clown. I really liked the way that my previous clown Checkers (see previous post) turned out, using the same yellows for the clown and the background, so my goal was to achieve the same harmony with reds. This piece is also painted exclusively with a large synthetic bright for a brush (I call it my shovel) which I used to scoop up BIG brush loads of paint. I wanted to keep this clown a bit looser and spontaneous......just work fast with lots of paint.....and POW! ......there it is.

A Hardy Har Har

Thought I might try a happy clown today, and got a first hand lesson how clowns are like painters are like people. "Face of a Clown" 16 x 20 looks happy enough but its really only a mask for something totally different. You can try to show the world one thing, but the true feelings of the clown, or painter, or person always show through somehow.
I guess if you stop and examine the works of art done by painters who had a high enough skill level where they could just paint a subject without thinking about "how" to paint a subject, that's when the emotion and communication really starts to come through. I think I could paint a lot of happy clowns, but they'd probably all be tinged with sadness.

Drivin the Clown Car

As the parade of clowns rolls on, "Cindy" 16 x 20 was the next to appear. Cindy is the sad clown with the droopy drawers who holds her hands over her eyes to cry, and you see the water squirting out.
These paintings are kinda like watching the clowns all pile out of the little clown car, wondering who will appear next and how many more there are in there.

Checkers anyone?

It looks like the clown paintings have taken off into a full blown series. I do have an affinity for sad clowns........ a feel for them. They all have little pieces of me in them.
Why can people relate to a "sad" painting more than a "happy" one? I've seen people look at a sad painting and say....."Boy, I know exactly how that feels" or "I can really relate to that". I've never seen anyone look at a happy painting, and say how they remember when they felt happy like that. Why is happy so fleeting and sorrow seems to last forever?
Well any ways, this is "Checkers" 16 x 20, and he just seemed to develop on my panel all by himself, like he was waiting for me.
More clowns on the way, so enjoy the ride!

What a Pansey!

Thought I might try another clown today, just to see where this is going. Things are slow at The Gallery so I don't feel any production pressure, so another clown was in order.
This is "Pansey" 14 x 18, who appeared on my easel after a few false starts. Again I'm finding that there is always a little something unexpected lurking under the made up face. Actually, its kinda like looking in a mirror when I look at this piece. Odd.

Who's in (under) there?

What to paint? Who doesn't ask themselves that question when you need a fresh start. A new series seems in order, as I just counted about 20 paintings in my last series. Without the motivation of a bunch of sales, that is about my limit for one subject. So again, the age old question......what to paint??????????? What will sell? What do I find interesting enough to keep me motivated to do a thorough series? What will accomplish both goals?
I find if I try to paint for "sales only" without the emotional connection to my subject, it shows in the work. And a lot of times if I paint something emotional moving, it is too "far out" for people to understand. So instead of trying to figure it all out, I just painted a clown. The cool thing about clowns is that their make-up may convey one emotion, while the person under the make-up may be feeling something totally different. So.....the cool thing about clowns as a subject is that you can try to get the emotion of the clown (painter) to show through the actual made up emotion his make-up conveys.
Well...........this one is called "Benny" 14" x 18". Can you see far enough under Benny's make-up to know what I was feeling when I painted him? And how many people on this planet today wear their "make-up" everyday to keep the rest of the world from really knowing what they're feeling? A planet full of clowns.............would have thought? later.