A New Painting of Paul Newman & A New take on an Old Rose.

Hi all, 

I hope all is well with everyone out there. Ok, another couple of paintings to share today. The first is a little portrait of Paul Newman, who I've  painted three or four times in the past.
And he was actually one of the first portraits I tackled when I began painting famous faces all those years ago. Kind of fitting then, that as I start winding down my portrait work, he makes a final appearance; Coming full circle so to speak. 

 As for Paul Newman himself, what I say, except that I'm a huge fan. I can't think of a performance he gave that wasn't genuinely moving. One of my all time favourites was his performance in a 1982 movie "The Verdict"; In this he plays Frank Galvin, a somewhat jaded lawyer too fond of the booze , who has taken more than a few missteps in life, and now finds himself embroiled in a case that threatens to push him over the edge. Not sure why I relate to such troubled characters, but probably I find echos of my own missteps in theirs. 

After that I think "The Colour of Money" would be my number two Paul Newman movie, or number one depending on the day. Here Newman plays that iconic "Fast Eddie Felson" a pool hustler of yesteryear who finds his love of the game rekindled by a young pool player wonderfully played by Tom Cruise. Newman's worldly experience plays against Cruise's youthful impulsive wild-card nature to great effect. And thrown in the mix is the beautiful and talented Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who also puts in a first class performance. Oh and if I didn't mention Martin Scorsese directs and Newman gets the Oscar. 

Of course, with Newman, there are so many classics I could go into: The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and of course The Hustler which made the sequel The Colour of Money possible to begin with. 
Anyway, we will leave it there, for this "Art"/"Film" Bog, and even if the painting doesn't grab you, at least you've got some good movie recommendations to roll with.

More info on Paul Newman painting

As for the next painting, I want to say this is a new painting as well, but that wouldn't be the full entire truth. The truth is that it's kind of an old one, but looked at another way, it's kind of new too.

Let's begin with the old. You see yesterday I was doing a bit of work on my website, and I noticed this painting and wondered why it wasn't getting as much love and attention as others.
One thing that struck me was it wasn't exactly looking stellar in the pic I had up website, so I decided to take the original painting down from the shelf and compare it to the image. I guess I wanted to see if it looked equally sad and deserving of relegation or not? And sure enough, the colours and exposure were considerable off in the web photo.
And further to that as I went about fixing this I got an inkling to rotate the canvas 90 degrees on the easel, to see how it might look in a vertical rather than a horizontal format, and let's just say it was mini revelation. If only salvaging all paintings was always this easy:)
And so yes, it's an old painting, but the photo reflecting the true colours of the painting is new, and the format of hanging it vertically is not only new but positively transformative. 

And finally, if this isn't overselling, let's face it this slender vertical painting will play nice with many a neglected alcove in your home, in a way a wide horizontal painting never could.

More info on "Folded in Light"

Ok, I will leave it there and leave you in peace.
As ever, thanks for reading and everything is up for sale on this very website if you wish to peruse things further. 

Until next time, keep well and thanks!

Vincent 
vincentkeeling@gmail.com