A look back

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Once in a blue moon I go through my old photo albums and look at some of the first paintings I ever made. This one happened to be one of my favorites. It was quite big, much bigger then you see in this photo. This piece was 24x42 When I took the picture I stupidly took it in sections, so you don't see the serving wench to the left of the dragon. The dragon himself was cutoff and there were two acrobats above on the top that are cutoff. You can see part of the boot of one of them in the upper right corner. When I took a picture of this the flash created a light orb on the photo.You can see it on the table right under the pixie. That orb isn't on the actually piece. 
I was a very ambitious painter when I first started out. Everything I did had to big and over the top!. This piece was done in oils. I only worked in oils back then and it took me over a month to paint. This piece sat in a few coffee houses and then at the Ward Nasse gallery here in NYC before I gave it to my best friend Alicia. Me and her are no longer friends so I don't know what ever became of this piece. Last I heard she and the painting moved to Connecticut.  

You can see who I was influenced by in this piece. There's a nod to Amy Brown in the dragon and Brain Froud in the fairies and pixie. And just a hint of John Anster Fitzgerald in the bird on the table.  I think I had a tendency to crowd my paintings with lots of unnecessary stuff  in my early days.

Back then this was pretty much the type of work I was making. I had closets full of paintings done in similar style. But after my relationship to my high school sweetheart dissolved and I had to move out abruptly most of my beloved work was put in the garbage or given to people I no longer know. So I'm only left with pictures of most of them. And not even good pictures, lol. I bounced around a lot and ended up a few toxic relationships so I never revisited that style again with my work. I think no matter how hard we try not to we sometimes lose a piece of ourselves and it reflects in our new work. I've often have had people tell me I should go back to painting like that again. But what some people don't understand is art was a reflection of my surroundings. It's was a reflection of my mindset at the time. It was what I ate drank and slept. I just haven't been able to get that feeling back again to paint in this style again. 

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