Painting #35 of my Painting A Day project.  I wrote a poem about this painting, dedicated to strong and proud women who want to break free from whatever cage they are in...and run free.







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She really didn't need
A Man on her back;
She was running free.

Strong. Capable. Warrior.
Traveling her own Path.
Swimming in her own Sea.

But then He offered her
An apple and a bed
And a cage. For Safety.

This piece was completed for the virtual pARTy from a photograph by Kimberly Kelly Santini.

This is the second version of this painting, the first completed, overworked, wiped out and begun again, this time with more attention to the drawing. I ended up doing a contour drawing, and working from that design. I'm happy with the results - very abstracted but still recognizable. Unfortunately, I didn't photograph the first version - it was actually quite good, lots of loose brushwork. But then I got obsessed with the EYE and ended up with a painting of a crude EYE with lovely brushwork around it. Tried "fixing" but ended up making things worse. So out came the old brush, the Gamblin oderless turp, the cotton painter's rag. And goodbye 1-1/2 hours of work.

So I took a quick break, and started over with the contour drawing and then added in value and colors. When the figure of a man appeared in the upper right corner, the title of the painting and the poem all came to me instantly.

Here is the photograph of a Bashkir Curly by Kimberly Kelly Santini:


Here is my second attempt, initial contour drawing: