Even if you’ve never heard of Michael Deas, you’ve probably seen his work. He’s painted numerous portrait covers for Time Magazine, including Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson. In an article published today in the Times-Picayune, Deas shares his thoughts on painting, lighting, and his new studio.
The Guardian’s Simon Callow provides an insightful review of Laura Cumming’s “A Face to the World” — a book providing a historical look at self portraiture in paintings.
Diego Rivera is best known for his large dramatic murals, and perhaps for his marriage to Frida Kahlo. What’s less known is that from 1913 to 1917 he painted a series of cubist portraits. Twenty-three of these paintings, along with some sketches and illustrations, will be on display at the Meadows Museum in Dallas Texas, from June 21 through September 20, 2009.
It’s unusual to a find a serious, well-executed portrait painting that features a big, wide-open smile. Toothy smiles have become a hallmark of amateur portraits painted as copies of a photographs, without any real effort at originality. There are exceptions, of course.
Some of Frans Hals portraits, for example. And now, this portrait by Jesse Fillingham, a student at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
In Nashville’s The Tennessean, MiChelle Jones, writing about “The Contemporary Portrait” exhibit at the LeQuire Gallery, explains that the gallery’s portrait business is not suffering and notes that the exhibition started as an economic trend.
“Gallery director Elizabeth Cave says she noticed a strange thing: Despite the increasingly bad economic news, commissions for portraits had remained steady; in fact, there seemed to be an increase in demand.”
“It’s been a big part of Alan (LeQuire)’s work for 25 years,” Cave said during the show’s packed opening, “but the last six months have been especially busy.”
The Tennessean article is here, and the LaQuire Gallery site can be found here.
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El Greco is best known for his dramatic figures featuring the full range of human emotions, but he was also an accomplished portraitist. 100Swallows provides a brief survey of El Greco’s portraits, placing them in the time line of the artist’s life.
The full read is here.
The portrait is probably the least likely candidate for painting with a palette knife. A portrait requires a high degree of control, but with a palette knife compared to a brush, you lose some of this control.
However, if you can pull it off, what you gain is a painting that may be more lively, more expressive, and more exciting. Kentucky artist Bill Guffey can pull it off. In this article, he provides some insight on the use of the palette knife, using a recent portrait as an example.
Following his insights and the image of the portrait, don’t miss the the close-up shots of his knife work. Also, be sure to check out the links to his online galley and his blog. You’ll find that his landscapes are equally as compelling as his portraits. –Greg
This interesting read in London’s The Independent argues that the upsurge of interest in portrait competitions is a sign of an increased interest in portraiture in general.
Citing the National Portrait Gallary’s BP Portrait award in particuliar, the article contends that “the popularity of the BP Portrait Award is indicative of a new interest in portraiture in general, which is itself stimulated by the number of competitions for portraiture, both painted and photographic, which now exist…”
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In this feature article, Ohio USA artist Nora Sallows shares her approach to oil portraiture. A few samples of her expressive brushwork are presented following the text, as well as where you can find her on the web. –Greg
Continue reading about Nora Sallows: My Approach to Oil Portraits
I’ve discovered that Joe Zeltsman’s book, “The Zeltsman Approach to Traditional Classic Portraiture” is available online. The 16 chapters appear to be complete, with plenty of images to illustrate the various topics of the book. The book is full of useful information on a classical approach to facial valuation, posing, and lighting. The book is written for photographers, but I believe portrait painters and will also find this information useful.
I’ve not run down the source of the book’s posting — I hope it does not violate any copyrights. I know that Zeltsman was a popular portrait photographer who died last December. His influence was widespread, and included another well known teacher, Marty Zucker. Chapter one of the book includes a brief biography.
The book lives here.
Continue reading about Zeltsman Classical Portraiture Book Online
Renouned artist Nelson Shanks will receive the Portrait Society of America’s lifetime achievement award on April 25 at the society’s annual conference.
I can’t find any information on about this on the Society’s web site , except for a mention in the pdf brochure. I came by this information via an entry on phillyburbs.com:
Says Shanks: “I’m honored to receive the Portrait Society of America’s gold medal. We must all strive to achieve the highest standard in painting and the portrait as fine art.”
You can see Nelson Shank’s work here .
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It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to have the legendary Daniel Greene critique your portrait painting in front of the camera and 20 others. But it’s less hard now thanks to an entry in Susan Carlin’s art journal sharing the experience with both words and a video.
“…there were perhaps 20 or more people watching and listening. Gulp. I was especially braced when it was my turn, since I was second-to-last of those receiving critiques, and he had not pulled any punches on those who had come before. He had pointed out positives, yes, and had been quite blunt about the problems. The first 40 seconds of the critique he was silent as he studied the painting.”
Continue reading about Daniel Greene’s Critique of Carlin’s Portrait
Motivated by a show of Rubens drawings at the MET, and some portraits she saw last summer in Vienna, “Goethe Girl” explores Goethe’s take on Rubens.
“..but looking through his writings on art I discovered that Rubens was a lifelong enthusiasm.
Here’s a quote from Goethe on Ruben’s female figures: “What the painter hasn’t loved, doesn’t love, he should not portray, cannot portray. You find Rubens’ women too fleshy! I tell you, they were his women, and had he populated heaven and hell, the air, the earth, and the sea with ideal beings, then he would have been a bad husband, and powerful flesh would not have grown from his flesh nor [powerful] bone from his bone.”
Read the entire essay here.
From the Portrait Society of America Web Site:
“The Art of the Portrait® Conference is right around the corner, and we would like to invite you to register for our celebration of excellence in portraiture and figurative art. Attendees from around the globe enjoy opportunities to experience more than 30 individual demonstrations, lectures, panel discussions, workshops and shop directly from top manufacturers at special discounted rates, including Art Boards, Peggy Baumgaertner, Custom Canvas Workshop, Gamblin Artists Colors, General Pencil Co., HK Holbein Artist Materials, Hughes Easels, Jack Richeson & Co., Liliedahl Video Productions, Martin/ F. Weber, Silver Brush Ltd., Studio Incamminati, Turtlewood Palettes, Natural Pigments and Signilar Art Videos. Attendees are also invited to visit area museums and ateliers, share portfolios in one-on-one critique sessions with agents and internationally acclaimed artists, view an exhibition of top works from the International Portrait Competition and network with over 700 attending artists, agents and manufacturers. Join us April 23 – 26, 2009 in Washington, D.C. for the 11th Annual The Art of the Portrait”
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The U.K. Guardian reports on this week’s sale of drawings in Dorchester that includes a David Hockney portrait sketch of Peter Schlesinger, and “is expected to fetch up to £15,000.”
“The portrait, along with another Hockney sketch, a pencil drawing by Henri Matisse valued at up to £40,000, and etchings by Picasso and Lucian Freud worth between £30,000 and £25,000, have been owned by a private collector in Wiltshire since the 1970s, who is described by auctioneer Guy Schwinge as having ‘a refined eye’.”
Here’s a link to the story
National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition “Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century,” runs from today through August 16.
Wendy Reaves, curator of prints and drawings, said that exhibit offers 187 portraits from 66 artists, including Alexander Calder, Edward Hopper, Chuck Close, David Hockney, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.
The drawings “….in the exhibition make it clear how much of a ‘different species’ the self portrait is from a portrait done of a sitter and how much self-portraiture, a 500-year tradition, has changed just in the 20th century. In a self-portrait, as opposed to a commissioned portrait, for example, the artist doesn’t have to appease a patron.”
The announcement can be found here, and the photo gallery lives on this page.
Continue reading about Self-Portraiture Exhibition Opens Today
It’s about creativity, life, and art — this short video is deserving all the net buzz it’s generating.
Atlanta based editorial photographer Zach Arias responded to Scott Kirby’s invitation to guest-blog. It starts out whimsically and ends up — well, just see for yourself.
I love coming across really nice drawings on the web.
This charcoal and pastel portrait by Ramesh Jhawar effectively uses the tint of the paper for the midtones, charcoal for the darks, and white pastel for the lights.
Marcel Duchamp is best known for his 1912 painting “Nude Descending the Staircase.” That’s nice enough, and if you can get past the toilets he adorned as art, the the Dada movement he is associated with, then you might find a few portraits interesting.
“Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture,” is on show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. These are portraits of Duchamp — not all are by Duchamp. Here’s some name-dropping: Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Jasper Johns, and Ray Johnson.
The NPG’s exhibit page can be found here.
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Over at artstudiosecrets.com, artist Lisa Gloria relates how she’s handling a multiple portrait commission.
“One portrait is a challenge, but 3 distinct framed paintings pose a new set of problems to be solved. I needed to make them look like they belonged together, while using disparate photo resources. Also I wanted the installation to seem harmonious as a whole composition.”
“I didn’t have the option of posing them similarly, so instead I chose to balance different poses against each other as though they were in the same composition. Their suits and ties are in shades of grey, with check patterns as a recurring theme – sometimes in a tie, sometimes in a jacket.”
The writeup is here, and Lisa promises to share the portraits after they are accepted by the client. The crop of the oil portrait you see on this page is “Isobela in Tahitian Dress” from Lisa’s gallery, and can be admired by visiting this page.
Continue reading about Managing a Multiple Portrait Commission
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