What if you were just a head? Over the years I have overheard my brother-in-law say this to my sister many times. Always out of the blue. They will be sitting the couch together watching a movie and he’ll turn to her and say “What if you were just a head?” So here she is as just a head, floating over a Northern California spring landscape. I omitted the cows, although I thought of having them float around with her. We all got a good laugh. This one was fun to paint because I was trying out a new (to me) technique where you paint the entire canvas a color, raw umber here, start without a drawing of any sort (I looked at a photo), and wipe back the lights and move around the paint until it looks like something. Then I painted with color because she looked a little monstrous in monochromatic raw umber. We thought she should be pretty, because she is. She displays it proudly, I think.
I painted this Feb 2015, one of my first portraits non college years.
16X20 oil on canvas
Jill Millward Artwork 