John Singer Sargent and I

applying a coat of zinc white (mostly avoid the lead these days) atop two thin layers of animal skin glue

 A woman contacted me to ask about having her portrait painted in a Victorian dress that she had a black and white photocopy of. She wanted the dress to be blue. She mentioned having photos of herself that I could work from. I asked to see the visual material. She sent me photos off of an i-phone. The photos of her were small, but clear. She had a beautiful smile....the image of the dress was a different story. It was a rather  worn photocopy and difficult to see any detail on the dress. It appeared to  be a painting of a woman in a Victorian dress.

I began to worry about how I would come up with a believable Victorian dress, and I decided to look in the local community college library, which happens to have a good art book section. "John Singer Sargent" popped into my head and I thought to myself that he had created portraits of women in dresses around that time period...so I pulled a book of his paintings off of the shelf and checked it out. I was looking at it for the third time about a week later, beginning to feel panicky about how to design a light blue Victorian gown, when all of a sudden, I turned the page in the book past a dress that almost looked right, and spotted a painting that pictured the identical image from the black and white photocopy. Except, most puzzlingly, it was cropped slightly different...the painting in the book had more space above the figure's head....I wondered wether the b/w photocopy was a copy of a copy....but anyway, I had found the dress! I looked it up on-line and printed out a beautiful 8"x 10" photo of the painting. Not only did this give me brush stroke information about how to create the dress, but it presented a pretty believable warm-hued background.

Blocking in background and foreground areas

 The painting looked like the client from the moment I started sketching her in.

Committing to the background

The completed portrait

At the client's request, we replaced a "clutch" for what seemed to be a bud vase in the figure's front hand. It was really fun paying such detailed homage to the Sargent painting...I found myself quite interested in the white shape slightly behind the figure...is it a pillow case cast to the floor? Why did Sargent think that this disordered element was a good idea? Or perhaps more significantly, why did he want such a noticeable white shape in that spot?Maybe to simply direct the viewer's eye along the top diagonal so as to take the viewer's gaze under the sofa and behind the figure? Maybe this is what gives the painting it's lively sense of depth?

This woman's family were all involved in obtaining updates on the portrait and then making sure it was beautifully framed for her for mother's day. I wasn't sure whether to tell her husband when I met him to hand off the portrait, how small my expectations for my own mother's day were. Not much fanfare at my house. "If I was lucky," I finally told him, "my youngest son would bring me coffee in bed. That was about it." We both chuckled.

As it turned out, I was wrong. My youngest son coerced his older brother to help bake me a cake. So I had a mother's day cake! (but no coffee in bed)

A picture says more than a thousand words?

A total of 13 portraits were completed.

This gentleman regards his portrait for the first time.

The artist "lets go" of one of the portraits (painted on a motorcycle helmet visor) to it's recipient.

A young subject has grown a year older since her photo!

Portrait smortrait?

Another Day, Another Portrait Or Over-riding Disney

Once again, soooo exciting starting this one, with the lavender baby magically arising
 out of the disney-esque fairy landscape....

I went at it some more after this session.....will post finished one soon.

 And then there is the one I finished last week...probably the most difficult one of all.  Look at the expression on that little schoolgirl face. She is trying to care about having her picture taken and maybe aware that past years have not yielded proper results. This year, once again, she is full of ambition to arrange her face in an acceptable way, but it just isn't working out once again. My rendition of her expression communicates her trepidation, but with less of the resigned gentle anguish. It was really hard to capture that resigned gentle anguish. Maybe I'll snatch more minutes before Friday when I hope to hang all these portraits to see if I can just soften some edges and get her a little less definite in her expression....Maybe if I could articulate in words what it is that her face is expressing....

The Unfolding Painting

motorcyclist on helmet visor (in process)

I continue to paint portraits on cast off objects (see prior posts). My current portrait reminds me at every step of the way why I paint, and why I am an artist. For this portrait. a helmet visor was submitted and then a snapshot of the submitter's husband on a motorcycle....I immediately asked if a "better" photo of the man was not available. I had in mind a photo of his face, as this was supposed to be a portrait of him that I was painting. His wife paid lip service to possibly being able to supply something else, but then could not come through as she explained to me that "He doesn't photograph very well" and "he really liked this photo of himself on the motorcycle". I resigned myself to dealing with the photo.

Lo and behold, as soon as I positioned my first brush stroke on the visor, I began experiencing a natural unfolding of "something meant to be". One of those paintings where there is no false move, every thing just falls into place. This is not to say that I didn't overshoot here or there and need to scrape away an errant bit of paint here and there, as one of the beautiful aspects of painting on found objects is the balance of painting versus unadulterated found object. In other words, there is not "painting over" an errant brushstroke as there would be on a traditional painting on canvas....I must remove errant brush strokes so as to allow the object underneath to show unimpaired. I'm always hoping that the final effect is somewhat akin to ink contour drawings by Matisse...no "mistakes".

So this "natural unfolding" resulted through accepting someone else's concept for the painting. It is expanding my sense of what this project is: the initial idea of this project was to encourage local residents in my area to identify "cast off objects" as potential painting surfaces, but now I see that the project is also about allowing me to let go of control and experience some accidental juxtapositions....this is so central to the experience of painting anyway; to be both directive in the sense of applying the paint to the surface, but simultaneously as receptive as possible to the painting as it unfolds. The painter must perform like a bus driver...steering the huge bus, but stopping for traffic lights, and delicately maneuvering around careless pedestrians, and other swerving vehicles.

Portrait Update

The foil wrapped box has held up to the paint...I was worried about this one!

This placemat surface is actually a wonderfully coarse version of canvas!

Still might smooth out the young man's face a bit further, but it looks so much like him that I''m almost satisfied...

I have 4 more portraits to start and complete by April 20th, which is when I will hold a "Givening" at the local Community Center to both display and give the portraits away to their owners. I must create an announcement for this, and make sure I get it to all the participants. I hope some of them are forewarned by reading about it here!

Portrait Update

Brother and sister on pink plastic carrying case

The portrait above has been a real pleasure to paint; the person who gave me the materials is an artist and really knew how to pick a great photo and a fabulous surface on which to paint. The color alone is really fun to be working with and against as I apply color. Like all the surfaces, it comes with its challenges. There is something slightly unreceptive about the plastic, so that the paint, especially as I apply multiple layers one on top of the other as I try to get the likenesses just right, almost seems to "crawl" a little, but overall, I LOVE this surface. The images below are all the remaining portraits that I will be executing. I have "dragged my feet" on the portrait below because the surface is a bit scary...It is a vintage foil paper wrapped around a cardboard gift box. I have thought long and hard about how to isolate the surface from the ravages of oil paint, and I explained the problem to the person who gave me the materials when they initially asked about it's usability. In the end, I applied two polyurethane-like coating layers to the surface. I hope that the recipient of the portrait understands the extremely experimental nature of this surface preparation!

young man on vintage foil covered box

Woman and baby on woven placemat

I have applied a coating of medium to the fabric where I intend to paint the image. This project has its own logic, I keep thinking of the "shroud of Turin" because the photo image is very blurry and kind of indistinct and so I expect to make a portrait that sort of has the appearance of "materializing"  onto the placemat....

rider on helmet visor

progress on the pink carrying case 

the "Free Portraits"

I received a local Arts council grant this year to undertake a "free Portraits" project. (funds made possible by the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the arts) My idea was to invite the general public to submit throw away objects to me with a photo of someone whose portrait they want painted on the object. I made a brochure about the project that I distributed throughout the summer, largely through "Commission boxes" installed in the public library and at the Agroforestry Center.

 I was excited to see when I got back from my summer travels that I had several submissions in the "Commission Box" in the Catskill Library. I am finding that there are twists and turns to working with the public that of course I did not anticipate. Several people submitted objects, but no photo. Most of the submissions came with phone numbers and no email, which is my chosen way to communicate. So today I created a form letter that I will send out by regular mail to let all the participants know that the painting of the portraits is underway.....

I completed the first portrait largely in the Greene County Council on the Arts gallery where the project was installed as part of the Whale Oil Show in July. I set up my easel and painted right in the window of the gallery at set times twice a week. I completed the first portrait, which is pictured here....Rob aiming a gun painted on top of an exploded can of spray insulation! This was a creative submission on his part, though it may fall short as an actual "portrait" as his face is not that easy to make out. He came to my studio during the local studio tour last week and did not realize that he would get to keep the portrait. he had the idea that I should sell it as part of my body of work!

I am nearing completion on the second portrait which consists of a very cute baby girl painted on a wooden serving tray. This has been a challenging painting assignment as the baby's face is proportionally very different from an adults and I have had to keep increasing the height of that immense forehead and the distance between the eyes, etc. It still is not enough of a likeness for me so I will continue working on it this Sunday....

More to come! For now, I must address the form letters and then correspond with a few "submitters" by email so that they all know I am working on it!

About Painting on "Trash"

metal refrigerator drawer, red plastic piece, yoga mat packaging

I received a local arts grant to undertake my proposal to paint "Free Portraits" on cast off objects. A crucial aspect of this project is the creation of a brochure that not only explains the project but convinces the general public that they want to "commission" one by placing such an object with their photo in a donation box. I will list the locations of donation boxes in the brochure.

I will be working on the layout and design of the brochure in the next week or so, and took some preliminary photos of some potential trash painting surfaces that I have collected over the last few years.

I think they look good enough to paint on!