Show piece Number One

 This is the largest piece for the show (30x40").  There came a time about 5 years ago when Mr. Glaisek told me it was time to paint a larger work.  This self-portrait is the result.  It hangs in the stairwell going up to my attic office/studio.  I worked out several versions of this, including selected sections on preliminary canvases, mostly out of fear for ruining the larger work in progress and may show some of these, space permitting, in the show.  The setting is Mr. Glaisek's studio in Nyack, NY.  The works on the table and floor are from other students; we were allowed to leave in progress works in his large workspace.  I like the relaxed pose and the fact that I do not look so fat!

1999 Jesse - I learn to love beards!

This is one of my first portraits painted at The Art School at Old Church, Demarest, NJ.

Jesse was a gentle and tall man.  Maybe I got his arm too long, but it does remind me how impressive his body was.  Oh the beard - here is where I learned that an accurate sketch can be more readily drawn if one has reference points and angles to work with.  Here the beard helped me to get the head shape and position of the nose, chin, ear and eyes.  Without the beard and mustache one must rely on the rounded features of the chin and cheeks where there are few reference edges to aid.  I also got a lesson on negative space while painting this.  Look at the grey triangle under his left arm - by getting the shape right I had help in setting the arm and left leg.  A lot of time was spend on the hand - I know why some artists like to hide the hand under or behind some object!

2004 Portraits in Watercolor

An instructor once told me that drawing in charcoal is the best media for a beginner who would like to learn to paint.  One needs to learn to draw and how to use light and dark values in a composition before adding the color.  Monochrome painting, whether in acrylic, oil, pen and ink, or watercolor adds the complication of the paintbrush and media as a challenge.  This is an early monochrome watercolor.  Really by accident I believe that the beauty and charm of this model was captured in this work.  I saved it because it reminds me of an early victory along the way and because it helps me to remember how powerful it is to see shapes and value.  At the time I did not concentrate on painting a likeness of this model; I just was looking at and painting the light and dark shapes and the transition between them.

Visible Brushstrokes - Yes or No?

One instructor says "be painterly", the other says "blend for smooth transition."  What will I do?  During the past 10 years I have tried both and have not made any specific decision on how I will paint.  Today I really thought about it and looked over some of my works to see what it is that I really do.  I tried to find examples of 'painterly' and 'blended' and had some difficulty.  Which do you prefer? - or have you never noticed technique - just observed the work and decided whether you like it, or not.  I think my work leans toward the painterly approach and I worry whether I will ever be able to paint formal portraits where the strokes are usually hidden by blending.  So be it.  Variety is good - hard edges and soft,  nearby values and contrasting values, large and small, even or odd, see the stroke and hide it.  I needed to learn the 'tools' and now I will use all of them.

2009 Archbishop of Canterbury

Here is the Archbishop of Canterbury, painted from a downloaded photo on the Portrait Challenge of wetcanvas.com.  I enjoyed the challenge of painting the face, hands and even the buttons.  You can see my work in progress and that of others by searching for the portrait challenge Feb09 on wetcanvas.com.  I have some good images of this work in progress that I plan to put in my solo show, using a digital picture frame to display and 'morph' each stage, one into the next.

2008 Unintentional Jesus

Per was a model that provided an unexpected challenge along the way to a finished work.  At the time I had just prepared a talk called "The Face of Jesus in Art in Life".  The talk went fine and was not really on my mind when I began Per's portrait in 3 sessions at the Artists Guild.  However at the end of the first session, while I was cleaning up, someone said - Oh, that looks like Jesus! (Unintentional Jesus).  In the talk I spoke of one of the most reproduced and recognizable images - that painted by Warner Sallman.  Now I am not a painter at the level of Mr. Sallman, but on reflection I had to laugh at the thought that Sallman's image was painted on my mind as I tried to get Per's image on my canvas.  I saved that work and began again and I use the first work in my speech on occasion.  This work was a satisfying result for me, thank God.

2009 Susan 100% live!

Susan posed for this portrait in a workshop at Brookdale CC.  Scott Nickerson guided me through about 7 hours of painting from this 'live' model.  Usually I take a reference photo at the workshop and use that to analyze the proportion of my drawing in my studio between sessions.  Susan did not allow photos, so this is one of a few of my works that was done 100% from live painting sessions with the model.  I see more blue in her hair in this photo than appears when I look at the painting.  I really need to learn a little more about photographing works of art.

2008 Lisa and the composition

 In Scott Nickerson's portrait class I took another improvement step on my journey.  Lisa, our beautiful model is an American who has a passion for India and visits there often.  After the first 45min of painting an initial image of Lisa, Scott visited my easel and asked me why I placed her head in the middle of the canvas.   Having no good reason I just offered a dumb look while remembering earlier lessons with Bob Glaisek where we had the same conversation.  So I wiped the initial image and placed the head at about 1/3 of the height and width of the canvas - the classic positioning for the object of interest.

 Now the painting moved along over the next few weeks and I was pleased with the image - but what to do with the background shape?  And why are her hands in this position?  This is one of my first paintings where I even considered the 'story' of the painting.  At my show I will display all the alternatives that I considered and as you can see I left the background blank after all.  This was a milestone in my thinking (planning) about composition in an additional dimension - beyond shapes and including a story.