This is the first time I consciously used basically flat areas of colour alongside fully rendered detail. I like the interaction between Jay and Joan. The idea was to tell something about their life, to give a glimpse or insight into it, using an incidental or seemingly mundane moment. I wanted to show an element of the depth in their relationship without having them looking at each other or hugging or anything else like that.

This is probably my favourite picture. I'd like to work more in this kinda vein. I think what helped this painting work was the fact that I used real people who were just playing themselves. As I've mentioned before, this is the reason Rockwell's stuff is so universal, he portrayed real people in real situations.

The concept pencils for this image can be seen here.