The Art of the Portrait

The Art of the Portrait 

One of the most challenging subject matters, in my opinion, is the human face. The multitude of colors found in the flesh is as diverse as all the colors found in this world. Combine that with the tiny details of wrinkles and freckle and the intricacy of the major features and you have a feat that can have you lost for years. I fine myself asking on several occasions through the process... is it done yet, or shall I go further? How realistic do I want to go? Should it look like paint or should it look photorealistic? If its going to push photorealism why not just take a picture and print it. So yes I fine portraits to be a challenge... but a challenge well rewarded when I feel I have gotten it right.

I typically start my paintings by laying an under painting that is either a neutral ground or something that is bright and opposite of what I am painting. I suppose the base of my paintings depends on my mood or I discovered a color that gives a result that intrigues me so I get stuck on it for a while till I try to experiment with a different one. Once that is dry its time to pick up the brush and get to work. Phases that echo through my mind that have stuck with me since art school: “There is no black use cools in the shadows to make it vibrate” (I grab the black a feel guilty the whole time... but well... I try) “Let the brush strokes speak” “Block out then move to details” ”work dark to light be patient and get the darks right first” (You can often find me jumping to early... I need some more discipline) Sometimes the conversation in my head is so loud I’m confident I may be losing my mind.

As the brush meanders on I get to lose myself trying to define space and making decision on how I want to do this. Can I make a person on a canvas exude life are they tangible and can you feel their presence. It one thing to be able to make and image look like someone but my mission is can I make viewer feel that person. To top it all off I am trying to accomplish this with people I have never met and have to trust my experience to guide me in the right direction.

Making images, especially the portrait, is a labor of love. Not all Portraits get to the finish line right, even after 25 years of study, and they get handed to the trash to start again with all that time used to learn a lesson. This being my profession I dedicate my life to finding my path through the fine art and out the other side producing paintings and drawings that speak about me as a person and a painter.