"Picnic" is a New Family Painting

A sunny afternoon in the park is just right for a picnic. While the mother, helped by the children, lays out the blanket in a convenient shady spot, the father stands ready holding bags loaded with picnic goodies.

We were visiting the Huntington Library, in Pasadena, California. With its Art Collection and Botanical Garden. It is a wonderful place to enjoy art surrounded by beautiful scenery. The art is housed in various separated buildings, and we walked between each gallery in warm sun filtered by shady trees. As we walked, I took many photographs of interesting groups of people.

After returning and examining the images, this family group resulted in another painting for my Contemporary Social Realism series: http://www.peterworsley.com/Paintings/Interactions/Picnic.html

Pretty Baby, Another Painting Completed.

"Pretty Baby" is latest of my new group portraits in the soft story telling style of my recent work.

A young mother, while out walking, is showing off her baby to her girlfriend. The friend looks at the hidden baby with an expression of awe and perhaps mixed with other feelings.

While traveling in France during early 2008, I saw these young women near an open air café. I took several photographs from which this painting was derived.

For a while I thought the woman in green was the mother and the woman in black was the friend - and then I saw the wedding ring on the hand of the figure in black.

The most difficult task was to handle the details of the under side of the baby carriage. There was a lot of detail in the original photographs. It was necessary to simplify yet maintain a structural integrity so that it felt sturdy.

In the end, I used the long supporting posts as visual lines to draw the viewer into picture.

The baby is very present in the thoughts of the viewer, but not seen. The mother's face is hidden, but also is present in the tensions of the picture. Only the girlfriend's face is seen in detail and provides the source of energy to the viewer.