For many years I refused to add faces to any of my figures. I would add the head but put no features in it. This seemed to reflect a rather dismal view of humanity. So I challenged myself by taking 2 years of portrait classes at The School of Fine Arts, Boston MA. My choice about detailing the human face shouldn’t be because I couldn’t draw it reasonably well. Here are 3 studies.

Calm Contemplation. 2. When Irish Eyes are Smiling. 3. Color Me Too.

I found the face gradually became extremely important to some of my painting, whether it formed the entire piece or part of a total composition.

Sometimes I kept original drawings because I felt i still had much to learn from them or they were part of some future work yet to be imagined.

Ruth. 2. Song 13. 3.Song 129. 4. Cherry Blossom Geisha.

Now the face comes and goes in my paintings with much more ease and appropriateness than simply refusing to create it.

We all have things we may need to ‘face’, but as I did the 2 years of classes, I realized I truly had received healing and could finally ‘face the face’ so to speak.