Aisha (white shirt)

36" x 26", oil on canvas, 2005

I had never really considered this until just now as I'm writing this entry, that I can identify in this painting the beginnings of my current technique with oil paints –specifically, the sort of impressionistic texture in the background and in the dark areas that I now employ (with a little better control) in much of my recent work (see this self portrait). A few years earlier I painted what I considered to be a pretty good painting, but it was really only a prelude to this one. And so on.