The man in this painting worked as a model for various painting groups. He travelled from a place far away to pose for my portrait painting group in Charlotte, North Carolina. His name was Richard and he had a very interesting beard. But it was not the only one interesting thing about him. I thought it was interesting that he showed us his Bible that he said was always with him. He travelled a lot and the Bible was very worn. It had some loose pages, some of the pages were poetry. This was the poem that he pointed out to me for some reason.
“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch
So, when I finished this painting, I decided to put the poem from his Bible, in the background.
Now, I think, the portrait is complete.
A Man With a Poem. oil on canvas. 24″x18″
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