The Naked Silo

36" x 24", oil on canvas, 2018, private collection. When I was first approached by the new owner of the Merrill Inn (now called Merrill House) to do a portrait of Edwards Merrill, original owner of the house, I thought it might be a fun challenge...only slightly daunted by the fact that there were hardly any images of the man (I only came across two different pictures, both of which looked kind of weird and didn't have much detail). My approach was to capture Merrill's likeness as well as I could in a formal composition inspired by the portraits of John Singer Sargent , include some romantic/moody atmospheric effects inspired by the illustration work of Bernie Fuchs , and have some contemporary elements (all the red bits) because I am me (and I seem to paint and compose in a certain idiosyncratic way that's as much intuitive now as it is deeply considered). Eyes detail. It took a lot of back and forth effort over several weeks to get this kind of a