KATIE O'HAGAN: DIRTY LAUNDY

The latest issue of The Artist Magazine has an article about Katie O' Hagan, a portrait painter originally from Scotland and currently living in Beacon, New York . I have become quite taken with O'Hagan's work, particularly with the above piece. It's called DIRTY LAUNDRY and O'Hagan describes it like this:

“It’s basically about what it feels like to go through a personal crisis in a small community where many people know—or think they know—your business and the feelings of paranoia that can result.”

As someone who has grown up and spent much of his adult life in small towns I can tell you that she has captured that feeling perfectly. Though the subject of the painting is a woman (and I suspect that such a situation would be much worse for women then for men) the feeling she evokes with the image is universal.

I would like to do portrait painting -- I mean real, traditional, actual paint, brushes and canvas and not digital, portraits -- and what I would like to try to produce are images like this; dark, moody and evocative. I could only hope to be near as good as O'Hagan.

Here's another one which I really like and it says in a single image what I once tried to tell a friend -- that art (or in my friend's case, writing) would save your life. She asked if I was sure and I told her that I was and here is an image that supports that thought. Art will save your life when all else seems to have failed you.

Anyway, I am now a bit Katie O'Hagan fan and I wanted to share. You can check out her website here.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio