Ah, to Be the Center of Attention...

Queen Anne's Lace is a 24x12 oil by Shirley Fachilla.

The little lady in Queen Anne's Lace is an unlikely person to attract notice. There's nothing outstanding about her (except, of course, she seems to lack a nose, mouth and eyes); but none the less, she is the focal point, the spot that commands the most attention.
Painters compose work around focal points; they want to lead your eye there and keep you looking for awhile. Artist C.W. Mundy has several tips for creating a focus; and some of them are at work to make my little lady an attention-getter. But I'll just mention the one that works the best for her. It's her face.
We humans are social creatures who rely upon sight to identify friend and foe and upon faces to read the emotions of our fellows. If there’s a face in a painting, then that immediately becomes where we look the most intently even if that face has no discernible features!

Detail

I’m happy to say Queen Anne’s Lace was also accepted, along with my painting Island Music, into Scottsdale Artist School’s juried Best and Brightest Show happening January and February of 2012.