The Struggle

This is the first painting I completed using primarily palette knife techniques.  It's a painting of my friend Chris Coogan in the act of decision making while working on a large scale piece.  Palette knife creates a really textural, physical paint quality that I felt embodies the mood I was going for.  Coogan is a phenomenal painter, but always plagued with self-doubt.  To quote him, "You sunnavabitch!  You painted my painting better than me."  For him every painting is a struggle in every way possible: technically, emotionally, mentally, etc.  At some point in every creative person's life, if not every single day, we go through this roller coaster of emotions.  And despite the defeat it sometimes brings along we still do this... we are really all mental :)  So while the image itself is quiet, I hope that the physicality, mood, and color evokes that internal struggle.  The painting is 24"x24" oil on canvas.