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Twinkle, Twinkle

Twinkle, Twinkle
17" x 14", oil on Bristol board, 2020

I've painted my friend, Ashley, more than any other model I've used and this particular pose had been sort of "on deck" for about two decades, making many appearances in my sketchbook in various compositions with various items joining her, but only appearing in one other painting until now.

Pencil sketch from 1999.

In many sketches over the years, I've put all kinds of stuff on and around Ashley, and I gave her a full-colour sunflower "tattoo" when I used her in this painting from my Sunflowers series (about a year or so before I started painting in oils as well as watercolours):

Corona Solis (papa)
15" x 22", watercolour, 2000

I've been revisiting much of my voluminous photo reference that I've been shooting since the early 1990s (on film until around 2012, then digital ever since), and this pose came up yet again and, as accompaniment, I finally made a decision and used a snapshot I took of a cat while visiting my friends years ago. The cat's name was Cole...and I almost named this "Cole and Ash" as a fun play on words.

Here's a time lapse video of Twinkle, Twinkle's creation:


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