small faces

?    oil on wood panel, 8" x 6"

the painting reproduced on this page is the painting i am giving away to the person who comes up with the best title. the painting titles are being judged by paul gessell, the well-known art critic from the national capitol region in ottawa, canada.

the following are my thoughts on painting small faces:

i paint faces all the time. sometimes in batches, sometimes one-off. i've always painted faces. faces are a common denominater amongst humans, across all cultures, across time. we all think of the face, we all look at faces,  we all think of our own face and how we project out to the world. i paint them in every which way. sometimes as a warm up. like an arpeggio, or a scale. up and down, down and up. quickly, smoothly. othertimes, it is a slow chipping and chopping. like chiseling hardwood. i sometimes work from models, but mostly not. i liked this particular face because of the expression that was achieved via the stroke, the fluidity of a single stroke.  i was happy with the left hair line, how it defines the eye bone, cheek bone, chin bone. i also liked the the stroke in the lips, how it communicated some kind of trepidation.

if you have an idea for a title, please write it on the following link. we will be choosing the winner on february 14th 2012.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/John-F-Marok/274100969285362?sk=wall

thank you,

john