A Freath of Bresh Air...drawing a portrait from life...Tanner Dionne

Tanner...a sketch

is how I would describe our young model Tanner.  (I had a friend in high school who would interchange consonants on word phrases....it was playful and fun....a sort of word game....after all....who doesn't love flutter-bies?) Tanner posed for our drawing class.  An interesting-looking free spirited art student, a senior in high school.  After the sessions we proceeded to comment on our work for the evening.  Tanner's comments were so fresh and elegant that I handed over the critique to him.  He was astute, complementary, and had that beginner's zen eye.  A marvelous experience.  Thank you, Tanner.

Go Figure...seeing the universal in the specific...

Fragile Patterns   Charcoal/Mixed   19 x 12.5

Figurative and portrait paintings seem to be a hard sell...at least for me.  Buyers and collectors seem to be reluctant to hang an unrecognizable visage in their living space.  I have also heard many folks who seem to be too modest to hang a picture of themselves as if it were boastful.  I have a very difficult time with this notion as I see all of mankind in a gesture, a scenario or even the placement of hands.  I relate to something in each model...something that echos a bit of my self and my longings.  I guess that I wish to relate to a bit of what the model is feeling or revealing through body language.  That is the reason why I continue to paint people and why I continue to learn about myself through them.

For me, the experience is tender.  It is pure.

Go figure.

Leave that stroke alone!...

Julie   conte crayon on paper   17.5 x 10

Yes, my brain tells me this repeatedly!  Demonstrations offer the opportunity to draw from life and to relish what has been given to you.  Julie sank into the comfy chair and eventually became one with that chair as she relaxed.  The excitement was there for me....the notion of a winter nap.  At the end of the session, I was quite satisfied with the overall feel of the work but felt that there were several issues that still needed to be resolved.  At home, I worked a bit...maybe a half hour, but understood the danger of "fixing"...where areas do become neater, tidier, but at what cost?  .....at reducing the energy of the work.  Ask me how I learned this lesson.  Ask anyone who has ever worked in watercolor.  Sometimes I look around at model sessions and classes and see well-versed artists repeatedly stroking (licking) areas again and again to no avail.....trying to get it "right".  It takes a long while to learn to trust yourself...to trust what you see...to realize that every stroke is valid, that every stroke, every mark, every squiggle is valid.  Trust......yeah, I get it now....hopefully it will stick.

Portraits...

Barbara Krans Jenkins   charcoal and pastel on paper   12 x 17.5

are a sticky wick.  I have seen seasoned portrait artists put their materials away in defeat after an unsatisfying session.  Likeness is illusive.  Sometimes, it seems that all of the pieces/parts are in the right place yet the overall work is just not right.  True, true, true.  I love the human face and the spirit it offers to me.  For me, doing a portrait of Barbara Krans Jenkins was a daunting task.  In my mind, her spirit is most apparent in her smiling eyes.  All strokes lead to that.  Also an enduring softness.  The demonstration at St. Paul's was difficult, as all eyes lead to the work on the easel.  I prefer to work incognito.  Talking and drawing are polarized tasks for me.  Getting into my zone was impossible.  I worked in soft vine charcoal from the inside out.  Although the work was satisfactory at the end of the demo, the overall feel was missing to me.  The softness was missing.  I finished the work at home with the aid of a photography and many overlays.  Subsequent layers were done using harder vine charcoal that allowed for a softer lighter line.  Some pastel was added for a lighter value, as the paper was a toned blue-green-gray. 

Barbara is happy.  She says her forehead curl is three-dimensional.  Rick says that curl is a "Superman Curl".  I am happy.

Barbara Krans Jenkins

Barbara Krans Jenkins   charcoal and pastel on paper   12 x 17.5

is an amazing artist who does forest floor images beyond compare.  Her cut and decorated gourds appear to be fine ceramic objets d'art.  And her community spirit benefits all of our community artists.  She has established the gallery at her church, St. Paul's Episcopal, boasting an elaborate and high-tech hanging system as well as committees of folks to help unload and hang.  Not a small feat.  And she is often seen volunteering and demonstrating at Summit Artspace alongside her vast collection of prismacolor pencils.  And so, it is to her credit  that I will be showing paintings and drawings at St. Paul's from July 4 through August 26.

Chef Roger will be there.  Come on along.

Ready for the Sun...

Carl Yoke   watercolor   13.5 x 9.5

One of our recent class assignments was portrait painting.  We drew numbers and sat  in pairs across from each other to paint.  We were to be prepared with summertime regalia, including hats, sunglasses, etc.  I find that these additions often fool our "afraid to do portraits" mentality by covering the eyes and the hair....those parts that are often difficult to render.  Granted, the lighting in our downstairs classroom at the art center is not optimal....it is fluorescent overhead lighting...which is not really advantageous for describing the beautiful form of the human head.  However, it is what we have and I believe that beautiful art can be made under any conditions.

Carl Yoke was my subject.

Unexpected Pleasures...

Olivia  walnut ink on paper   12 x 9

Life is full of them if we are aware enough to see and feel them.  Last evening our model was a lovely 20-year-old college student in finance named Olivia.  She is a well-seasoned model, having grown up with artists in the family.  I so do appreciate a great model who respects the clock and is able to settle in to a pose without the fidgets....something that I would have a difficult time doing myself.  The first time that I drew Olivia was in 2000.  She was 10.  The work is done in walnut ink.  Time marches on.

Reliance on Photographs...

Julie   conte crayon on paper   17.5 x 10

Photographs are the life preservers of painting and drawing.....they don't really teach you to swim, but they keep you buoyant.  It is very difficult for some folks to give them up as part of the work (?) is already done - the subject has been flattened into 2 dimensions.....the artist's job then is to pump 3-dimensional reality back into the work.  Photos are portable.  Photos save time. Photos freeze the subject in time. Photos are like reading Cliff Notes to try to understand a great American novel.  In a pinch, I have used both. Photos lie. So do Cliff Notes.  Everything is on the same plane.  Darks and lights are polarized.   Working from reality teaches the true nature of things, the to's and the fro's.  Models get tired, flowers wilt, and the sun changes.  But I believe that an artist can learn way way more and achieve more freshness and energy by working from life.  "Julie" is a portrait started from life at my drawing workshop in Warren where most of the attendees are portrait artists.  I will say that I could probably have worked another hour on it, but, being a workshop, we needed to move on.  The natives were growing restless.  I remember, though, that it felt good, I felt as if I had a handle on the subject.  It felt simple and right.  I snapped a photo so that I could finish the work at home.  A week later, I relied on my photograph to finish the portrait.  I was let down.....I felt that there was so much I had missed....how could I have been so wrong?  All those details.  Too many details.  The photo caused me to doubt my observations.  Although I finished the work to my satisfaction, I have to wonder what the work would have looked like had I been able to finish it on the spot....

Discipline before Freedom

Scott...a sketch

Painting can get to be very confusing, especially when reality is so very detailed and so very all-inclusive. One can get bogged down over colors, mediums and supports. When that happens to me, I go back to basics by getting out my sketchbooks and drawing just for the sake of it. Moving a pencil aimlessly around a sheet of clean paper can be very soothing. It just doesn't seem quite as "high stakes" as a painting. I think that some of my more sublime and successful works are in my books. I wouldn't ever consider tearing them out..............my books are sacred to me. They chronicle my life, my successes, my frustrations and my growth. They make me feel calm.