I’ve been working from and old family photograph of my mother and older brother, Mike*, taken in the late 1950s when our parents took us on a camping trip (see Portrait, Mike and Mom, Abstract Portrait Mike and Mom, Mike – Close Up, Continuing to Abstract).  Yesterday I created the beginning of a watercolor that I intended to use to show emotional relationship between Mom and Mike.

I extended the shadow between Mike and Mom. I extended the substance-less shadow to a shadowy barrier between the two.  On the other hand, the dark line surrounding Mom’s hug, is one of inclusion.

Mike, Dividing Shadow and Mom
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I did not translate Mike’s gaze from the photograph properly. Although the gaze in this watercolor conveys a certain emotion, it is not the one in the photograph, which is one of vacancy, as shown below.

Mike and Mom
Photograph on Bond Paper

* Mike is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal