Grrrr....

I'm smarting a bit over this painting critique this afternoon that didn't exactly go MY WAY. The culture/mix of personalities in this class with this new instructor is one that I'm having trouble adapting to. I'm not going to vent all over the internets about it. Anyway, here are some paintings, and a photo of me as a very young art student (taken by myself in the mirror; I've always been a navel-gazer, of course!) that was the inspiration for them.

I like them. So There! I am supposed to learn from the criticism. It's funny, because in previous classes I've been less than thrilled with some of the amateur feedback. I guess I got what I was asking for...

The painting on the left was the first try, a three session painting, and the one on the right was a quicker one done in one session. The assignment was to do a single-panel Expressionist painting, meaning a painting that evokes a strong emotion in the viewer.

To be honest, I just painted what I wanted to paint and didn't care that much if it evoked a strong emotion in anyone else or not.