portraits of course

"You approach the meaning through the act of painting. The figure - not pure abstraction - has always been the central thing, the thing you act on or react to. You can eliminate it, but it is there by implication, as a way of measuring space. What is done to it is a matter of style and strategy." - Georg Baselitz 

Portraits are usually what I do when I'm not quite sure what to do, but need to paint something. So I've been doing a lot of portraits lately, before I started to really get into this visual diary series.
My original plan was to do a series of small portraits, then do larger 'abstract' paintings based off of those...but i really don't even know what that means....so they're mostly like exercises, or just excuses to paint. hah.

Here's an install shot of the large & small one of my dad:

and one of my brother Joe:

also, i did this one at the beginning of the semester..it's really just a study..but i don't want my mom to feel left out, you know....shout out to the fam! ;) 

(sorry i don't have one of brandi)

alright, that's all the oil paintings I have.