8 inches square, oil on panel
I have been looking at Don Baccardy's work, a California portrait painter, prolific too, so there is lots to look at. He comes from drawing, definitely - line, line, line with all its energy and force and also he is casual, another plus. He did the official portrait of Jerry Brown, Ca governor) and it is hilariously straightforward and unassuming, with Brown looking bewildered. You can imagine this hanging with all the other heavy official paintings of bureaucrats in suits. Brown is also in a suit, but a rumpled one. I read that they finally hung the painting alone in the basement stairwell. And Baccardy made some comment like, if you knew what the other portraits looked like you would understand why I am not upset. All delightful, and I admire his work. But in amongst his paintings are a few of them that deal more with value than line, but both really, and these are the ones I think are the greatest. All this is interesting because I struggle so with values, I didn't know that the sort of painting I like best is based on values, which when they are correct convey a believable sense of form in space. And so it feels like you are telling the truth - but not with words.
