Elvis is in the Studio

"Calla Lily"

8x6  oil on museum quality panel

$95

One of the hazards of doing a demo are comments from the "audience".  I've been doing some for my classes this week and one of my students chose the Calla Lily as one of the demos.  As I was finishing my sketch, a student said how the initial drawing looked like Elvis.  The rest quickly agreed.  Not exactly the response I was expecting.  They tried to get me to see it...see the hair, the collar.  Nope, not seeing it!  Despite the laughter, I continued on.  My initial thought was to paint a purple background to compliment the yellows but that started another round of laughter about the morbid trend of the painting and talking about burying it.  There was also a brief discussion whether Elvis' favorite sandwich was peanut butter and pickle or p/b & banana.  I guess it goes without saying that the painting was finished after class.  I hope some lesson was learned during this demo, just not sure what it was but as least we had fun.  I left the studio humming "Walking in Memphis" with a whole different attitude.