Speed Portraits

A week in Amagansett

2009-08-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Annette and Geof Grant invited us to join them for their wedding anniversary at their home in Amagansett. We spent a very happy week with them and new friends. I bullied three people to sit for me for quick paintings. What a very beautiful area. The Devon Yacht Club wins the prize for immaculate situation and the best place to watch the sun go down.

Denis and Rachel entertained me with their erudition and educated me on many varied topics.

Grace was a lovely sitter. I hope I did not take her away from her holiday too much. I did not time the paintings- too much else was going on.

Three afternoons in the garden

2009-07-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

I have just spent three afternoons painting in the garden. It started as a quick 2 hour sketch of our friend Carmen and ended up being three sessions as we were all enjoying ourselves.

We were very fortunate to have Aaron Pavellis join us. He is very busy on a commission but made time to keep us company. Aaron is an excellent painter with very high standards. I always appreciate his company as he is both very entertaining, he always has an excellent eye for advice and is a fount of great knowledge (www.aaronpavelis.com).

My very lovely wife Ola provided us with snacks, coffees and lunches. Ola is always happy to point out any flaw in my paintings, a skill I deeply appreciate! Her hospitality kept everyone very happy as, I think, the photos show.

2009-07-12T08:52:00.001-07:00

Martia is a very sporty young woman and mother who lives nearby. She very kindly sat for a timed 2 hour sitting. I back lit her to empasise her wonderful bone structure.

2009-07-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

A 2 hour timed (not including breaks) painting of Pepe wearing my hat. Painted in the basement at home which is spacious but has a yellowish paint which, I think, throws a colour cast.

2009-07-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

I need to check but my memory says two two hour visits for this painting. Conversation was excellent and I felt so deeply the desire to reflect Channy's natural beauty. I hope I caught something.

2009-07-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

Our dear friend and neighbour Molly beat me! I started the painting from life but it was not to be. I might as well have sat down a sparrow. So after ten minutes I lay down my brushes, snapped a couple of pictures, enjoyed Mollies lovely company, and then spent a couple of hours with the computer screen later.

2009-07-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

There are few more joyful people in the world than Ann. Her husband Tom is equal in positive energy. I look forward to painting his handlebar moustache and full beard; Tom is a true Santa in both beard and spirit.

To catch her vitality I chose to do face on so we could easily talk. And we did. I painted manically while chatting consistently. We did one session of two hours followed by a one hour on another day. I am not sure how much was added by the second sitting apart from assuaging my lack of personal confidence.

I deeply hope she likes it...

2009-07-10T18:20:00.001-07:00

These were 2 hour timed sessions with Heather. Heather came to us from a small ad in Craigs list and proved to be an incomparable model. Beautiful, bright, serious..... If I have ever said (only habitually) that any limitation of the painting is fully the responsibility of me, the painter then I would be true for these.

The big brush strokes on the canvas come from me never getting round to underpainting the canvas. I would like to paint on a mid tone especially for quick painting. But I forget and so I am left staring at a big white canvas thinking "Tomorrow I will be prepared". The quick fix is the big brush loaded with a terpy tome of blue/brown. Schmidt uses this and lets it dry. Being even less prepared, and in more of a hurry, than this I wipe the wet paint down with the side of a roll of kitchen towel leaving the brush mark but with a little as possible wet paint to corrupt the next layer.

2009-07-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

I painted this in a timed 2 hour session having just spent the weekend doing a workshop run by the hugely talented Robert Liberace (http://www.robertliberace.com). And by hugely I mean extraordinarily talented. And whats more such a lovely man. So charming and so even in his temperament that I feel I need to speak to his wife to confirm that his gentlemanly character has been ruffled at least once in the time that she has known him. But then maybe it has not, and he really is always equally charming and dignified as he always has been when I have seen him. Maybe one day when he is in the middle of a demo in front of many many people I will put itching powder on his models chair, mosquito attractant on his pallette and a banana skin behind his feet. Maybe then he will let out some kind of epithet.

Did I mention his talent? He wields his brush with supreme accuracy but also a loose dither that adds life to his work. I dont know of anyone else who matches this easy skill of his. And to top this he can knock off a blinding sculpture.

A suggestion to sculptors- enter into the Portrait Society of America competition. I think they want to spread the conference to sculptors so they make sure that a couple get into the finalists even if their standard is not so high...

Rob Liberace was at the 2009 Portrait Conference in Washington. His demo painting was, in my view, the strongest. It may be that the subject helped, a young afro-american, painted more or less in profile, but Rob's match of skill with his easy brushwork would mean that he could successfully demo-paint a frog with Attention Deficit Disorder from life.

Without doubt the brief weekend painting workshop with Rob was a wonderful insight into this great artists techniques. I hope some of these are manifest in this painting.

2009-07-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Chuck again proved the rule that men are easier than women. Also profiles are so much easier than any other angle, with face on being the most challenging. With profiles all one has to do is get the line of the forehead/nose/chin, a small amount of eye/eyebrow, chuck in an ear and you have caught your fish! Bish, bash, bosh!

Recent sittings

2009-07-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago I painted the funny and entertaining Christina. I have not often painted such dark colouring. These sittings, on different days, were both very quick at about 45 minutes.

I watched a portrait painting DVD recently by a very well known portrait artist. The artist started by saying that he would never disparage another practitioner, but he repetitively disparaged artists who use big decorative strokes in the background implying that they are a cheap and easy trick that he would not lower himself to.

I personally think that this artist has been incredibly fortunate to have made the name he has. I wonder how much is based on smooth self presentation.

Richard Schmidt has proved that there can be a true value to well placed decorative strokes.

July 4th painting

2009-07-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend with great friends on the River near Richmond. I took basic painting stuff hoping to get some painting in.
I pitched myself into a tight spot on the porch squatting on the floor so I could be eye to eye with my subjects. I like to stand and have plenty of room to walk back, but that was not going to be possible so I made do with a small mirror behind me.

I completed six sketch paintings:

This was the youngest subject and one of the best sitters! Dear Issabel took it very seriously for which I was very thankful. She watched leass than two full episodes of Scrubs on the MacBook- you can see the corner of the screen poking into the painting. So 40 minutes ish without any breaks.

This painting is of Issabel's father Bill. Bill was reluctant to sit but I was confident of gettig something that he would like in a short period.Painting mature males is so much easier than the young or females. I feel that you can work with the raw texture of the paintbrush and do not have to spend so much care in modelling. About 1.5 hours without any breaks.

William sat for approx 1 hour 45 minutes without any breaks. A great young man. He was laughing out loud to Weeds.

Grayson sat for about the same time. He did not find Weeds funny so he was on Scrubs. His head reminded me of the Roman busts of Emperors in the Palazzo Nuovo in Rome. I think that the head that I am thinking of in particular could be Hadrian's. I tried to capture the raw solidity of his head, painting thicker than usual.

The lovely Danielle, actress and dancer, sat perfectly. In my experience dancers are among the best sitters. I think this is about their understanding of body position.