"First Love."
In these unsettled times, I found myself wanting to paint something gentle, something as innocent and disarming as I could imagine. With the constant churn of political turmoil, rising costs, and a general sense of unease in the world, I felt the need to step into a quieter, more tender creative space.
I turned away from my usual landscapes and instead painted a young girl with her pure white kitten. There's a hint, perhaps, of those wide-eyed children made famous by Margaret Keane, but I hoped to avoid the overt sentimentality and arrive at something softer, more natural.
The piece also gave me the pleasure of working in a figurative style inspired by Gil Elvgren, the great mid-century pin-up artist of the 1940s and '50s. It was a refreshing departure, playful, expressive, and unexpectedly freeing.
You might call the painting "First Love." Yes, it's unabashedly sweet, sweet enough to make your teeth ache. But sometimes that's exactly what's needed: a small, visual antidote to harsher realities. For a sensitive painter, it felt like the right kind of medicine.
