The Dog Walker

This is my fourth "pareidolia" painting and maybe my personal favorite so far.  If you recall, pareidolia is a psychological term for our tendency to find meaningful visual patterns in seemingly random visual stimuli.  You see a cloud that looks like a giraffe, or you see George Washington in your cappuccino. 

As with the other three paintings, I created a very energetic underpainting with lots of random lines and marks using thick wet layers of cadmium red and alizarin crimson.  Once dried, I simply stared at the canvas and let my pareidolia kick in.  

Pareidolia gets me only so far with image making.  It is nothing more or less than a spark, a random nudge from the art gods, that then initiates a lengthy process of composition and story making.  The spark for this particular painting came from the outline of the man's hat and the right ear of the dog (Lou).  From those two simple elements, I was able to formulate an entire composition and story.

A stoic looking fellow is out walking his dog, Lou, whose spunky energy requires both hands on the taunt leash.  Feet firmly planted, body weight counter-balancing Lou's successive tugs to go forward.  

The subject matter is simple and direct.  Impasto layers of brilliant and subdued paint build texture, depth and visual vitality.