11/14/2025
“Ripples of Joy”, Oil on Raymar Belgian Linen Panel, 16 x 20 in. I took the reference photo of Alessandra in our pool last month and knew I had to paint it because of her expression of irrepressible joy. I’ve been inspired by the artist Reisha Perlmutter’s work of portraits in water and wanted to do a painting where I would be able to see the body distorted through the water but have the head above the water free of distortion. I wanted the painting to have multiple levels of distortion: from the head and the floating toy that would have absolute clarity to the body under the water having distortion but still relatively sharp lines to the upper pool and foliage in the background that are blurred out like in a photograph. I love blues and the complexity of all the blues I used captivated me, including Prussian blue, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, and various lighter shades of blue. No doubt my favorite blue for this painting was ultramarine blue, a late addition to the painting, that reminds me of Yves Klein’s blue. I will be working next on a companion piece of Enzo to accompany this painting.
