New Piece Preview, "Doll Maker"

This is a new piece I am working on. "Doll Maker" (oil on canvas) continues on a recent theme that I've been developing. The art and craft of doll making is quite fascinating, and not too removed from painting either. It combines the disciplines of sculpture, painting, sewing, and fantasy. It is like a painting come to life that you can hold, or a sculpture that you can dress and pose. The hair can be combed, and the glass eyes can be any color you like them to be.

On another note, one of the other things that draws me to this discipline is that it allows me to break out of the normal disciplines of portraiture or still life to reach something in between. I can paint these dolls as they are, still and lifeless (or half formed, as in the case of the fellow in the box) or I can imbue them with life as in the case of "Lillith". In other words I can pose and work with my own supernatural creatures, while still achieving all the realism and observation of form and light with which I am accustomed to paint.