Children's portraits

Meet Richard and Alex, my grandsons. Both portraits were painted from photographs as neither boy is capable of sitting still long enough to be painted from life. They're both grown up now and active in all sports. The challenge of these portraits was to paint those young faces without "overmodeling". I learned that sometimes a "color shift" is all that is needed and not a "value shift". That seems to be especially true when painting by only north light.

What I learned from painting the boys was especially useful in painting "Grace" yesterday during Open Studio at Southgate Studio. I painted Grace in north light only which required tight values and high value key. I'm trying to "think more and paint less" which seems to be working.

Can This Heirloom Plate Be Saved?

This lovely Haviland plate was accidentally knocked off a wall where it had been displayed with three other companion plates. The owner inherited the plates from her husband’s mother and they are of great sentimental value. There is a process by which this plate may be restored to it’s original beauty. First the pieces must be washed in order to remove any dirt or oil from handling that might interfere with good contact when glued. Then it must be carefully glued. This can be tricky. When two pieces fit tightly together unglued, the glue will take up some very miniscule space between the two pieces when glued together. When multiple pieces are glued together it is easy to see that the total space taken up by the glue can be significant. This additional space sometimes makes it very difficult to achieve the original shape of the piece. After the plate has been glued the tiny visible crack made by the glue must be filled with porcelain filler. Then the fill has to be sanded smooth. This often takes several applications and lots of sanding. When I have completed the process of washing, gluing, filling and sanding, I will post a picture of the plate at that point in the process. An explanation of the next steps in the process will accompany the photograph. Check back in about three weeks for the rest of the story.

The Straw Hat

Last year the Open Studio group at Southgate Studio painted a very lovely lady in a marvelous straw hat and red scarf. She has always been one of my favorite portraits. Several weeks ago she appeared again as our model. She wore another lovely straw hat with a yellow and blue outfit. It was such fun to have another opportunity to paint Mary. She’s a lovely and gracious lady. Her photograph appears in the image on the right. The other two images are photos of my paintings of Mary

Snack Attack

I attended a Fat Tuesday party yesterday sponsored by the Tennessee Art League as a fundraiser. It was a great party hosted by Laura Turner and planned by Elizabeth Scolkin. Laura generously offered some of her "rescued and restored" old movie posters from the 1920's to be auctioned. Bidding was active and the TAL was the beneficiary. Many thanks are due to the partygoers and the hostesses. Upon leaving the party we were given a box of donuts. I ate them, of course, but not before I painted this picture of the donuts and Starbucks coffee. I call the painting "Snack Attack".

“EARLY SPRING”

I have just returned from Memphis where I attended Lori Putnam’s Still Life Workshop. The painting, “Early Spring” was painted with advice from Lori. She is an excellent teacher and I am anxious to continue painting in this impressionistic style.

This portrait of Phoebe was painted this morning in Open Studio at Southgate Studio and Fine Art. I tried something different this morning. Not having taken time to stretch a new canvas, I pulled out an old painting that I didn't like and painted over it. The previous painting was very dark so it was hard to get the skin tones bright enough. I was afraid that it would get too chaulky if I used much white to lighten the skin tones. I used yellow to lighten wherever I could and I think it turned out okay. That's what weekly Open Studio is for - to experiment and see what happens. It's like practicing the scales on the piano but lots more fun. I think I'll try painting over old portraits again. I have miles and miles of canvas that could be recycled this way.

FINAL PORTRAIT OF ANDREA

ANDREA

THE FIRST PORTRAIT

ANDREA

THE FINAL PORTRAIT

The first portrait of Andrea was painted three weeks ago. With a little help from a friend and a lot more adjusting, the final portrait was completed. With just a little more tweaking I softened the line between her right cheek and hairline. The dark hair color was lightened slightly and pulled into the neckline so those values would be a little closer. One little spot on her forehead at the hairline was lightened so it would indicate the forehead continuing on up to the hairline. All those changes were small ones but they made a big difference. No one said this would be easy. I remember a comment made by my first teacher, Michael Shane Neal. He said, "Talent is only 10% of a good portrait. The other 90% is desire and perserverance."