48x30 | Oil on Panel

Week 52

As I'm finalizing the last brushstrokes, the realization hits me that my slowing pace over the last few paintings was not that I somehow had forgotten my technique, but that I was subconsciously trying to delay the end of the series. One year ago today we began this journey that I had no idea would be so pivotal for myself and our marriage. How can this be the last of our series?

We determined some time back that the last 2 paintings were to be self portraits. I can't help but compare my introspective portrait to what we choose for Laert. His position is open, soft, inviting. His confident stance and eyes draw you in. It is as if you are looking from the viewpoint of our canvas. Looking from within the art and into the artist. The artist creating art is now the art! I hope that next year, if I was to paint myself again, it would show more of those qualities.  

In Indian culture it's typical to see a bride in gorgeous reds and groom in lustrous white. If you look closely, a small stroke of red with one of white underneath is hidden in each painting. Can you find it? It is a marital signature all our own. I love to put the red flourish, but Laert does too - he often forgets his is the white. This signature and this series is just the beginning of what we will create together. This year has been bold awakening of life and potential. What I see from within the canvas is that we, are just getting started.