Self-Portrait with a Fascinator 2016

On Monday, I walked, buying frames from two stores in different parts of the city, then went to the Art Bar Poetry Series in the evening, about 16,000 steps/13.1km. 

Part of a group art show and poetry reading on Sunday. 

I spent the morning searching for a few paintings. All I’ve done, really, is some self portraits because I belonged to a self portrait group on Facebook for a few years. We could only use reflective surfaces, not photographs.

Anyway, I did locate a few of them. Then, I decided to paint a yellow background on an earlier one (that I did use a reference photo for). So I researched what you can use to dry oil paint real fast, and added liquin to the paint. That was late afternoon. 

I came home from the art bar early, about 9pm, and repainted another one’s background red with a real nice, rich oil paint that I purchased a few years ago. I used water mixable oil paints for a number of years, but have gone back to traditional oils for the richness of color.

This one is from a still from a video reading of a poem in 2013 with two other poets that I did to promote our LyricslMyrical chapbooks when we launched together that year at a poetry cafe. The painting was done in 2016 for an art show, but I didn’t use it that time. 

Yellow background still wet. I’m amazed it works. I tried different colours in PhotoShop before deciding on a Medium Cadmium Yellow with some Yellow Ochre. 

Fingers crossed it’s dry by Friday when I’m hanging my 5 paintings. 

Here's the 2013 video of  'This Cabin,' by Lisa Young; 'the luminist poems,' by Brenda Clews; and 'Scarborough Songs,' by Pat Connors.