affluence

I've always painted people who are not rich. And so when a friend asked me to paint a portrait of a member of a really wealthy family from my hometown, I had my hesitation. It did not help that they developed a lot of agricultural and wild lands for their cookie cutter homes and strip malls. In the end, I did the portrait and the painting came out authentic. As expected, however, the family wanted it "touched up" since it was "too loud". So I said, whatever. I fixed the damn thing which I never do for anyone. I left the revised painting with their security guards at the gate hoping that that was it. But their assistants called again 2 times after that. I never called them back. They probably wanted me to put more blush in her cheek. Anyway, even though I take photos of all my paintings, I refuse to show that one. So, instead, here is a painting of 3 working class old men. It is called "The Storyteller", gouache painted on 18"x14" watercolor paper. It won best of show and first place in a couple of shows last year. It's up in a mantle in some wealthy family's house now.