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From the Ocean, From the Stars

approx. 12" x 16", watercolour, 1989, private collection

Every now and then I come across an old photo of some of my early work. Usually the paintings are so rudimentary that I can't bring myself to share them here, but a few are very important nonetheless (Cultural Mess, Fruitful Mess, etc.) and sharing them seems appropriate. This one would have been done in the spring/early summer of 1989 and isn't too bad (I used a grid!). The reference image of the woman, of course, comes from a magazine (Playboy, IIRC).

This was my first attempt at rendering glass in this medium, and it turned out pretty well, but that hair! Jeez, I did a better job on the hair in my portrait of Michelle Pfeiffer, which predates this painting by a few months. Then again, I was only about 17 1/2 years old...

The title comes from an Arthur C. Clarke collection of novels and short stories with the same name.


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