Man with a Chainsaw

I've let the Christmas holidays distract me - what with shopping for gifts, addressing christmas cards, christmas parties, etc. I've also been trying to work more on my large cow painting, trying to finish it before the end of the month so I can start another one and complete it in time for the cow show in March and April (I'm organizing a cow show called "Divine Bovines", with 8-10 artists showing their artwork on a cow theme). Anyway, in order to not let this blog be dormant for too long, I thought I'd post an older painting. I've said I like to paint people, so here is one of the "portraits" I painted of my husband in his favorite venue - chain-sawing! He loves to work in the woods sawing down dead timber or making up firewood. Lately he's been clearing an area on some property we own down by the bay for a potential house site. This painting is called "A Man and His Chainsaw" (2001), acrylic on canvas, 24" x 30" (one of my favorite size formats). I loved painting the squinting expression on his face, the denim for the overalls, and the shadow on the storage shed in our back yard. I named this after a painting in the Mobile Museum of Art, that I've admired for some time, of a depression era farmer/woodmen in his overalls and straw hat titled "A Man and His Saw". But this painting is sans hat.