Had enough of the mountains for a while? Don’t worry, I’ll have lots more at the end of August when I’ll be painting the Eastern Sierras. That’s right, Edgar Payne Country.

But no need to get into that here.

This here little painting was done in the studio. Lori, the model actually had more of a floppy beach hat on. I just saw a more of a narrative possibility with a cowboy hat, so I took the artistic license. There’s a story in there somewhere, isn’t there?

It’s unfinished and sketchy, but I think it works that way.  I particularly like that the mood supersedes the description of the physical - something I try to do in all my painting but rarely succeed. This one somehow has more than that, though. I can’t put a finger to it, but it seems to be a character study, and not only the personality of the subject is felt, but it stirs my imagination as to what this person’s story is. I just wish I knew what makes it so? Most of the time, I paint a figure and it’s a figure painting. Not much more. It may be a technically good painting, but rarely do I penetrate the surface. Sargent was able to do it. So could Duveneck. Velasquez and Sorolla, too.

Anyway, I really like this sketch.