Painting from a Photograph

I learned to paint from photos when I was a student at Stony Brook University. The professor was Malcolm Morley, who taught to paint using the time-honored grid system. I've done several over the years, and they are my most popular paintings! This oil on canvas of a male mallard, 24" x 18", was completed last week. I took it to my brother Craig to get a critique -- he is a duck hunter and carver -- and he told me the position of the beak and head indicate the mallard is angry.

So there is the title: Angry Mallard!

Malcolm Morley was a British photorealist painter. He lived in Bellport, NY, and passed away last year. My uncle was his butler for a while. I studied painting at Stony Brook in the early 1970s. I didn't register for any of Morley's classes, but he taught in the same studio as my professor, Ed Countey, so students got lectures and critiques from both.