This is a painting of Stevie Wonder titled "Harmonica". I loved it for its simplicity, color palette, and the fact that this is Stevie in his youth with much shorter hair. It is a bust style portrait.

 

It is centered about 3/4 down on his face from his highly textured hair. The background of the painting is a solid off-white color. He is wearing a vibrant red-ruffled shirt. At the bottom center of the painting, there is the dress shirt line of ruffles leading up to a bow at his neck. From there, is the neck. Branched slightly outward above that are his hands gently holding the harmonica. His fingers are placed right over it like he is playing a tune. Nearby, are the tops of his ears, the rest of the face, and the hair. It is made up of small shaped balls of oil paint.

 

This is a signature in my work for folks with short & small coiled hair. When you reach the border of the hair, there lies the flat background. There are rays of brush strokes coming from the crown of his head - the same color as the background, off-white. This is also a well known aspect of my work. I use the rays as symbols of importance, and a nod to Renaissance paintings where the halos sit behind important or religious figures from the Bible. Lastly, there are no facial features in any of my paintings. Here there are brush strokes demarcating cheeks, and a chin. The cheeks sit right above the fingers.