Finished the above picture last week, hard for me to believe but my first painting featuring a pig. I like pigs and most farm animals in fact, but my experience with them has mainly been through the anthropomorphic creatures encountered in storybooks and TV shows, (Wilbur in "Charlotte's Web" and Arnold Ziffel of "Green Acres" being two favorites). The pig is a loaded symbol for sure, waste, greed, pity, humor can all be projected onto this animal. In the sketchbook mine started out as the typical "top hat with cigar" variety, I kept playing with this version until I got the idea to put a chicken on it's back. Now I had a slim narrative, no more hats, breakfast. The bacon strip was added last, tough decision. The kid's thought it was weird, but to me it added a bittersweet quality and stretched the narrative just a bit, so it stayed, plus I really wanted to paint some food. Whadaya think?
Above: Friends Contemplating The Future (that was the working title) 20x22 oil on panel 2010
For a brief moment, when I recently walked by this church sign in the neighborhood, I thought they were promoting a Bar B Que fundraiser or something, had pigs on my mind I guess.
Above: Friends Contemplating The Future (that was the working title) 20x22 oil on panel 2010
For a brief moment, when I recently walked by this church sign in the neighborhood, I thought they were promoting a Bar B Que fundraiser or something, had pigs on my mind I guess.
