Picasso Study, 36" x 24", acrylic on canvas, 1981. Artist's collection.

This is my first attempt at painting. The figure is composed from my imagination, but is rendered in the style of Pablo Picasso's work during his neo-classical period. I attempted here to reproduce his palette, brushwork, and modeling of form.

This is the ground breaking shovel-full of creative form that I scooped out of the world of images already made, and images that are yet to come. I am unashamedly fond of this painting for sentimental reasons even in view of the fact that this work is not terribly successful in aping Picasso's style. Picasso's achievements in the visual art world were enormous, and revelatory, and yet, cumbersome in their weight along my eventual path of self-discovery as an artist. Some artist's choose a path which travels around the Picasso issue. My path would eventually lead straight through the Picasso issue. Three years after this painting was made, I was unintentionally producing very passable Picasso-styled works while painting and drawing blindfolded. The works that I am referring to are exhibited in the Dream and Blind gallery here at FryeWorks.