You are good at painting eyes. I still remember the look on Evening Melody’s face.

Indeed I did note the dimensions of the Mueck baby — definitely my preferred size of progeny (art progeny, that is).

In our family we have a (sly) way of admiring drooling babies held up to our perhaps too-jaded eyes; “My, that _is_ a baby.”

Maybe my favorite art experience happened about twenty-five years ago in the National Galley in DC.

I stopped to view a painting of Napolean by David. Napolean was, as expected, calm, arrogant and… surprisingly dumpy. I was amused and looked at him for awhile, long enough to follow his gaze. I turned around. There was Ingres’ remarkable “Madame Moitessier”. She did not look pleased.

(And: did you notice the dimensions of the Mueck. And he only thrills at close examination.)

Have you seen the You-Tube 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs

These are fades or morphs between famous portraits that we are all familiar with, but what is most fascinating is to watch the eyes and mouth as the video moves from one to the next.

By the way, Mueck’s baby strikes me as the most amazing creature — definitely not a blank page.

D. Ragged Cloth right now has a post on Diego Rivera’s mural — they are a throwback to the big old history paintings, but perhaps because it isn’t European history ( or at least it’s a view from a different angle) I’m finding them fascinating. The multiplicity of figures and the interactions between them (”interaction” in your post is what set me off) is wonderful. I wish there were a way to do a You-Tube video, like the Female Portraits, using Rivera’s faces.

Certainly the Formulaic approach of most portraitists (even Freud, sometimes) feels unbearably staid. That said, I think the majority of artists being shown today are interested in people and their inter-actions. They just don’t prefer to have them be so still for so long.

I believe that the Conceptual basis for the most riveting contemporary work has finally outdated the notion of Genres and replaced it with a rangy Multimedia. It can be experienced in Chelsea (not Agora), and though it might not be your cup of tea, it can at least become an acquired taste.

THanks for showing the paintings of people you know. Grandma is very tender looking! And Ilike how her eyes go in slightly different directions. I was wondering if a different connection to the subject would come through. Or maybe you do not necessarily know them - you just took the picture? I’m not sure, but I do like that painting of her. The young boy is nice too, but his eyes are on the flat side which makes it hard to read his expression. The hard edged light shapes on his forehead and nose are also distracting - could be the photo though.