So, not 100 percent done with this painting, but I’m practically done and I’d like to blog about it.

I had a lot of fun with this portrait. It’s both a portrait of hands, and a reversal of the last painting I did with boxes, the one where you see the woman from far away and then see her closer once you open the box. This one you see a focused part of the person, and you can open the box and see the whole person.

I wanted to put a lot of energy and feeling in the hands. I encorporated unpainted pieces of colored glass into my usual wood/caulking/paint cocktail. I think that the glass helps make them seems stylistically representative and not just chopped up. If you’ve been following this last six months on the blog, this is an extension stylistically of what I was thinking about during the “Portrait Experiments” post. The hands of the subject were always active, and I am trying to use the style I’ve been developing to make them appear even more alive and significant.

Since moving to North Braddock I’ve been wanting to make a map of the area as a medium size, hyper detailed painting. Not quite ready to move away form portraits, though. I’ve got another painting in the works about my friend Matt. I caught him in the grocery store after he said I could take pictures of him, so I have some cool photos of him shopping.

Also, stay tuned, I’m going to blog about “Grocery Knight” soon. New episode! Season premiere! Still wood! Still paint! Still Nathan Van Patter’s Art Blog!