Lately, on YouTube, I've been watching a British TV show called Portrait Artist of the Year. It's a show in which celebrities sit for portraits done by professional and amateur painters. (The celebrity is allowed to take one portrait home with him/her.) The paintings are then judged by artists and art historians, and the winner moves up in a competition that will result in a commission to paint a celebrity portrait that will hang in a museum.
I often play a computer game in another window while the show is running, but I switch windows at the scenes in which the judge utter phrases like, "Liam has captured something very subtle about the sitter," or "Mary's brush strokes are just fantastic!"
And I am often puzzled by what the judge has seen.
What makes a brush stroke "fantastic?"
The winning portrait - not necessarily the one the sitter chose to keep - is often one that I considered the worst of the bunch.
Clearly, I have no taste in art.
Nevertheless, when I work up my nerve, I am going to attempt to paint a portrait. In oil. Haven't decided on the subject, yet.
I might paint myself.
If I can figure out what a fantastic brush stroke is.
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Later this afternoon, The Husband and I are to attend a memorial service for my ex-brother-in-law. The Husband and Son #1 are playing/singing at the service. It is no big deal for Son #1 - he plays before an audience every week at church - but The Husband is nervous. He is playing/singing "Over the Rainbow," the Hawaiian guy's version (I have no clue how to spell the name). He's got the ukulele part down pat, but the vocals are giving him trouble; he's fudging the high notes a little. I hope he breezes through it perfectly.
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