Katherine Chang Liu's Ventura Artists' Retreat--A Place to Grow and Mature as an Artist:Part III

Run
30" x 22"
Transparent Watercolor

This is the last piece to come out of the time I spent in Ventura. Katherine considered this the best piece of the three, commenting that it "captured" the person. At her suggestion, I left the white of the paper on the hat, shirt and lower half of the painting. I like the way it gives a punch to the face, red lettering and red shoes. The most challenging part of this technically, was painting the foreshortened figure. I stubbornly (because I knew it would be difficult) chose this view because the interesting shoe arrangement. As with the other paintings, there is plenty of symbolism in this piece, but I will leave it to your own interpretation. Do you find this image evocative?

Perhaps the most important thing I came away with, is that I can paint everything from hats to shoes and figures both imaginatively or realistically. I can even paint a grubby sock. I can use transparent watercolor, collage, acrylic paints and even a little bit of gold leaf. So the "message to self" is that at this point in my art career, I am not limited by materials or subject matter. I can paint almost anything that comes to mind. The real challenge now is choosing a topic for my next series. Stay tuned!