The Oil Painting Blog : portrait painting

Words of a Winner

Austin R. Williams — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 05:06:00 GMT

The winners of our Self-Portrait Cover Competition are featured in the September issue of American Artist, and they share advice about how to paint the figure and how to maintain a successful painting practice. When we asked David Tanner, the winner of the competition, to give his advice, he offered more than we had room to print. So I thought I'd share it here--hopefully it's useful for those of you working on how to paint the figure realistically, as this artist does. Here, then, are David Tanner's recommendations:


Self-Portrait by David Tanner 2009, oil painting, 16 x 12. Winner of American Artist's Self-Portrait Cover Competition.

If you are interested in representational painting, make sure you find a school or take classes taught by artists who can "walk the walk." Even the most general of painting classes should be taught by a painter capable of doing a basic still life demonstration painting from life.

Paint what you love, of course, but also challenge yourself to paint subjects that hold less interest. I had no idea how much I would love plein air landscape painting until I tried it for the first time, and I'm positive it has improved my reaction time to light and color in other genres.

Draw from life constantly--both alone and with fellow artists. Take advantage of local open figure drawing sessions, where you can join other artists and chip in for a model fee to practice with a live model outside of your classes.

Go to museums and galleries, and linger over the paintings that resonate with you. In particular, look to see how the artists have simplified their subjects down to the masses of color-values.

Study magazines like American Artist, and pay close attention to the advice presented in the articles. In my early days as a painter, I created my first successful flesh-color combinations after reading an interview in American Artist with a well-known portrait painter.

Painting from life is the only way to successfully sensitize your eye to color, value, and form. Avoid frequent painting from photographs until you have extensive experience painting all subjects from life.

Squint and compare when observing your subject and your painting to see value relationships. Let your eyes blur and go out of focus when observing colors on your subject. The blurring will simplify the color to a mass and may make your color mixing choices easier.

Stand far back from your canvas after every few brushstrokes to monitor the success of the effect you are achieving compared to the subject.

For more information about the artist, visit Tanner's website. You can learn more about the artist's painting--and see all the finalists of our Self-Portrait Competition--in the September issue of American Artist.

--Austin

Sharing Tea and Portraits with Natalie Italiano

judith St. Ledger - Roty — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:37:00 GMT

Recently the students at Studio Incamminati went to New York. I chose not to go, instead wandering around the school looking at the drawings and paintings on the student walls. Natalie Italiano, an instructor in the core program as well as a Fellow there, also stayed behind. We ended up sharing tea in her studio and talking about a challenging long-term project Natalie started in December 2010 called "One Hundred Alla Prima Portraits of American Teenagers."


Adolescence by Natalie Italiano, oil portrait painting. This work won Best Portrait at the Philadelphia Sketch Club's 149^th Annual Small Works Show. Go Natalie!

Natalie has been honored several times over for her portraiture--by the Portrait Society of America (in 2009) and by the Philadelphia Sketch Club (Best Portrait in 2011) to name a few. But the alla prima approach she took for her most recent portrait painting project--and the selection of "real" people she chose to paint--was a bit different than the way she usually works.

The idea for the series started after Natalie saw Rose Frantzen's portraits at the National Portrait Gallery and read her book, Portrait of Maquoketa, in which Frantzen encouraged others to explore doing portraits as a series. The idea appealed to Natalie, in part to teach herself to paint "alla prima" (direct, expressive painting completed in one session), and in part to allow herself to spend time with teenagers. Her daughter and son have both left for college and Natalie was feeling a void that I well understood, having my daughter off at college too. Natalie was also interested in painting ordinary people, those you see passing by on the street. She chose to paint her models entirely from life, usually in a four-hour session for each portrait.

At this point, Natalie has painted more than 100 portraits with more on the way. For each one, she asked her teen-model to choose his or her own outfit, sit however they wanted with whatever facial expression they preferred to reveal, wear make-up or not, and outfit themselves with any accessories like cat hats with ears or eye goggles that they wanted. It was all up to them and Natalie encouraged them to be themselves.

The faces that look back at you when you see the portraits in a group convey a range of emotions--gentle, quiet, angry, defensive, direct, happy, wistful, wise, idealistic. As a series the paintings bring the figures' cumulative experience and emotion to the fore. Not only has Natalie captured the breath and depth of those emotions, she has done it using a vast array of methods and surface preparation, some of which she was less familiar than others.


Madeline (progression) by Natalie Italiano, oil painting.

Natalie initially used 12 x 12 panels, but eventually decided to do the series on 14 x 14 canvases. As she would with a longer painting, Natalie began with a thinly painted grisaille underpainting of burnt sienna and ultramarine, next moving into the color of the background to begin to communicate the color of the light. She also put in color notes in the clothing to help relate colors to the skin tones in the lighted portions of the models' faces.

Natalie experimented with different types of canvas and tones as well, discovering that the way the canvas is toned is just as important to her as the type of surface she uses). She even varied her brushes as she progressed through the series. She allowed herself to paint more thickly than she has previously, especially in the lights of the paintings. She used various types of linen as well, and experimented with lead white as a ground, finding she loved the absorbency, but was leery of its toxicity. She chose backgrounds that she felt complemented the teens' coloring, or selected them based on her emotional response to her subjects. In other words, she pushed herself both in subject matter and paint handling. I can't wait to see how Natalie finishes the series and what she learns about herself as an artist after such an endeavor. Here's to 40 more paintings!

Have you ever painted or drawn an extensive series of work? Leave a comment and let me know.

--Judith

How I Built an Art Network in My Hometown

Patricia Watwood — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:45:00 GMT


The Honorable Clarence Harmon, Mayor of St. Louis by Patricia Watwood, oil on canvas, 24 x 18, oval, 2002. Collection of St. Louis City Hall.

Someone recently asked me what I did to get recognized and become part of the art scene in my hometown of St. Louis, and how those connections led to my having a solo exhibit at Saint Louis University Museum of Art. When I lived in St. Louis I wasn't part of the art community. In fact, I was not involved in fine art at all during that time of my life. (I was actually involved in theatre in high school and college).

I left St. Louis right after high school and have been based in New York for the past 15 years. It was only about five years ago that I started to realize that St. Louis could be a wonderful "second base" to balance out my New York art community. (Plus it would allow me to combine work trips with visits to Gramma's house with my kids!)

It all started with a few portrait painting commissions. My mother worked with the former mayor on education policy and when the time for his official portrait came, she suggested, "I know a talented portrait artist you could consider—and she's a native of St. Louis!" (Thanks, Mom!) I submitted a portfolio and subsequently won the commission. Building on that success, I did two commissions for Saint Louis University.

This experience with portraiture taught me that business is built on two priceless intangibles: word of mouth and personal relationships. So, being in the right place at the right time and developing one-on-one connections whenever I went back to St. Louis or corresponded with interested individuals over the phone or email was the key. It's a slow process, but I found that this kind of networking is the most common way to receive new painting commissions.


	Dr. Kenneth R. Smith, Jr. by Patricia Watwood, 2010, oil on canvas, 40 x 40. Collection of Saint Louis University.

In St. Louis, I cultivated my reputation as the "painter from New York" to stand out from the other portrait artists in the community. This allowed me to become better known in St. Louis, both for portraiture and for my studio paintings.

Then two years ago, I decided to have a showcase in St. Louis and do an event to draw people in and get the word out about my paintings. I sent out invitations to my family's extended network of friends, and anyone else we knew in the community with an interest in art. I then converted my mom's living room into an art gallery, bribed my mom to bake a bunch of delicious cakes, and we hosted a party.


Dr. Patricia Monteleone, Dean, by Patricia Watwood, 2008, oil on canvas, 40 x 30. Collection of Saint Louis University Medical School.

I put together a slideshow presentation about the process of commissioning a portrait, and set that up to play on loop in a corner of the "gallery." I also gave a short talk about my art background, the New York art community I'm involved with, and the importance of portraiture.

Two key things developed from this event. One is that I made a good contact with the Director of the Sheldon Art Gallery (a museum), who attended the party. Second, the executive assistant to the President of Saint Louis University came to see the showcase, and she recommended my work to the director at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art.

Father Biondi, the President of the University, is a devoted supporter of the arts with a strong interest in figurative work, and has built an exciting collection for the University. And, happily, they eventually invited me to have an exhibit at the museum. The Museum was pleased to present an artist with St. Louis roots, and to bring the world of contemporary realist painting to the St. Louis audience.

So work to develop key relationships in your circle of art, and over time this can lead to new opportunities. And remember that friends and family can be your greatest allies in spreading the word about your work. And if your mom's an awesome baker—put her to work!

--Patricia

P.S. Have you had similar experiences building your own artistic network? What strategies have you used? Leave a comment and let us know.

For more painting instruction from Patricia, check out her latest DVD, Figure Painting: Realistic Skin Tone.

His Painting Palette Was the Size of a Piano Top

johnandann@theartistsroad — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:58:00 GMT

Under the Awning by Joaquin Sorolla, oil painting, 1910.

"There is nothing truer than truth. All the mistakes committed by great artists are due to their having separated themselves from truth, believing that their imagination is stronger...There is nothing stronger than nature. With nature in front of us we can do everything well." - Joaquin Sorolla

Upon the opening of the 1906 Paris exhibition of Sorolla's work, Camille Mauclair wrote, "Artists of France, I beg you to visit this exhibition, where you will learn all the lessons of plein air, line, color, impasto, and originality."

Last month, John received the catalog, The Painter: Joaquin Sorolla by Edmund Peel as a birthday present. It is from the 1989 exhibition of Sorolla's work and it has left us both, once again, in awe of the talent, energy, and mastery of this great artist. John was fortunate enough to see the exhibition when it was in New York at the IBM Gallery, and to see in person the large canvases, many painted entirely outdoors—it changed his vision of what painting could be, forever.

It is refreshing again to see Sorolla's bold use of vibrant color. Although he began with earth colors and a darker "Old Masters" palette in his portrait paintings, it seems to have been the pull to paint his subjects outdoors, in sunlight, that transformed his palette to the brighter, more vibrant colors for which he became known.


Sewing the Sail by Joaquin Sorolla, oil painting, 1896.

A major influence on the young Sorolla was the painter Jules Bastien-LePage, who championed the rural life of France in his pictures. Sorolla, likewise, loved to paint the working people of Spain, especially the fishermen. He loved to paint white fabrics in the intense Spanish sun. White sails, white dresses, white beaches were all painted lovingly and exuberantly, and he made brilliant use of cool violets and blues to set off the shadows, all painted with decisive, calligraphic strokes. His masterwork, Sewing the Sail is a prime example of this.

He was also remarkable for his prodigious and ambitious workload. He exhorted his students to produce not one study for a studio work but ten! He had no qualms about working life-size outdoors, where he rigged up great swaths of fabric on frames to shade his work and provide the right lighting for his models. When one model would tire, he had a replacement step in so that the work could continue. Historians record that Sorolla worked 6 to 9 hours a day and kept a covered bed in his studio in order to sleep close to his work and be able to begin painting quickly without disturbing the rest of the household.


My Wife and Daughters in the Garden by Joaquin Sorolla, oil painting, 1910.		Valencian Fisherwomen by Joaquin Sorolla, oil painting, 1915.

It is said that in the studio he sometimes used a palette the size of a grand piano lid and brushes three feet long to allow him to stand back from his large paintings. He would paint with quick, decisive short strokes until the finish, when he would secretly knit the loose assemblage of colorful strokes into a masterwork with a careful application of middle-greys, that he said, "are worth lots of money."

If you ever get the opportunity to see this master's work first-hand, we heartily recommend it. It may provide a lifetime of inspiration.

Join us on The Artist's Road for more inspiring in-depth articles.

--Ann & John

Painting Portraits with Personality, Mood, and Character

dmaidman — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:32:00 GMT


Portrait of Ginevra di Benci by Leonardo da Vinci, 1474-1476, oil painting on wood, 16.5 x 14.5.

I've described the most important technical parts of my study of Da Vinci: line and anatomy. When I began to study how to paint, I opted not to follow his methods, so I haven't got anything to share with you about the famous sfumato, admirable though it is.

Let me explain something about how I learn about art; a quirk, perhaps, of being self-taught. I usually don't read books by or about my subject. I've read snippets of Da Vinci's notebooks, but haven't made anything like a complete study of them. I am only sketchily aware of his biography and his role in Western art. I like to learn by looking at things, and I think I've been served well so far by this practice, even if I have woeful gaps in my knowledge.

One of the most important things I learned from Da Vinci was in line with this practice of looking at things. It was simply this: his figures and portraits have so much soul. I have spent hours in the National Gallery in silent conversation with his bewitching Ginevra di Benci.


	Madonna of the Rocks (detail) by Leonardo da Vinci, 1483-1486, oil painting, 78.3 x 48.

How long can you talk to a painting? It's a good question. I think it has to do with how much personality is present in the painting itself. Ginevra is multi-sided. She looks as if she has a personality, and moods, and thoughts. She appears complex and self-possessed. She serves a role in no story but her own, and she's not entirely interested in telling you what her story is. So my approach to this picture is a pilgrimage to her; it is not hers to me. This is a picture, but it is not a show.

Da Vinci's portrait paintings brim with substance and presence. Consider the angel Gabriel in the Louvre version of the Madonna of the Rocks (yes, that's the one Dan Brown thinks is spooky). This Gabriel is a trouble-maker. The lower lids of his eyes are clenched with fun, and his mouth is breaking into a smile. The eyes are looking at something specific that isn't in the painting. You, observing the painting, have caught part of an ongoing story, and the character of the participants is evident, but the story remains mysterious. There's something threatening about that smile, about the knowledge the angel has, which you do not have and cannot get. Again, we see a full, self-willed character, inviting us to sink into extended inquiry during our encounter with the painting.

What I learned from these studies is that for the pictures of people that I want to do, line, form, color, and light are not enough. They are the servants, not the master. They are what depicts, not what is depicted. What is depicted is the human presence. The success of the drawing or painting is to be measured in relation to the human presence, not the elements of visual design.


Young Mother by Daniel Maidman, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 24.

I finished this painting just recently. The model's name is Piera. My paintings of Piera look a little Da Vinci-ish from the get-go because Piera herself looks a little Da Vinci-ish. In this painting, I wanted as much as possible to eliminate everything but Piera, the person. There are no clever ideas, no exciting bits of design. Just Piera.

I've been working with Piera for close to three years. If you're interested as I am in the humanity of your sitter, I believe it is important to work with models for a long time, to develop a textured sense of who they are. Piera had her first child a year ago, and she is very happy and very tired. All those things went into this painting, but they don't necessarily come back out of it. You might not know her story or anything about her. Would she still be interesting? Would you still stand a while with the painting because you want to get to know her better?

I don't know, but I'm trying.

--Daniel

What I Get From Other Artists

Patricia Watwood — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:24:00 GMT


Wilson uses the visual world as a lexicon of poetic images, as in his painting, Mary. In the 19th century, painters depicted modern life, embracing the “real” and eschewing narrative subjects and symbolism. Now, modern figure painters are embracing poetic language anew, and escaping the limitations of the everyday “real” visual world. All works by Will Wilson.

Like all artists, I draw inspiration from other artists, and this can be especially meaningful if the artist is my contemporary. One of my favorite artists to watch is Will Wilson. Wilson works in San Francisco, in a studio upstairs from his long-time gallery, John Pence. Will studied at the Schuler School of Fine Arts, and at my alma mater, The New York Academy of Art.

Will has been making amazingly consistent, exemplary and individualistic work for about 30 years. He has always been a “guiding light” of mine in the classical tradition of the figure and portrait painting. One of the things I admire in his work is his clear sense of “voice” and individuality. When I look at his painting, I think, “Will and I are barking up the same tree.”

I recently received a card from John Pence Gallery featuring a fantastic recent oil painting portrait of Wilson’s, Mary. The painting is a quiet revolution. I wanted to share the image because it stands in sharp contrast to the predominant style of much figure painting out there today. The alla-prima brushstrokes and dash of impasto that are usually praised as good oil painting techniques are nowhere to be found. Instead, the paint handling is careful, the drawing precise, and the surface is relatively smooth with delicately modeled form.

Wilson isn’t dwelling on the surface of the painting's canvas. Art, for him, is more than that--he’s trying to draw you into the world of the image. He wants you to depart into his painted realm, inside the picture plane, and consider what the world is like from that view. He is implying narrative, but in ways that invites the viewer’s opinion. He uses subtle embellishments in the composition, like the pansies in the girl's hair and the key around her neck, to remove the image from the everyday.

The painting is also very sweet. Do you know how hard it is to make a sweet painting that is not trite, saccharine, or stereotyped? And where is the irony, the mortification, the fashionable disaffection, or the socio-political commentary that critics so often look for? Sweet is not cool, right? But painting a young woman, pretty, yet individual, is a challenge. Wilson goes his own way, not with the maddening crowd, and sticks to his singular vision.


	Entr’acte depicts a moment backstage between acts of a play as the title actor prepares for her final scene as Joan of Arc. Thehelmet symbolizes a halo, the purple robe divinity, and the lilies in her lap foreshadow resurrection.

I asked Will to comment on the picture and he wrote, “Mary is a portrait of my 21-year-old cousin who was about to move to NYC to pursue a career in music. For the background I looked at photos from the Hubble telescope depicting Nebula, clouds of interstellar gas and dust, the place where stars are made.“ Wilson is crafting a background that works on two levels—as a well designed sky that complements the subject, and as a metaphor for the message contained within the painting.

Consider the predominant style in any given painting and ask yourself, why? What are your preferences, and how much are your opinions about “good” or “bad” based on predominance, rather than excellence? Artists can and should break the rules as much as they abide them, so question your own preconceived ideas about style and expression. This will shape your individual voice, and strengthen your commitment to the unique expression you can make, in spite of any countervailing pressure.


String Theory, 2006, 23 x 17.

--Patricia

For more painting instruction from Patricia, check out her latest DVD, Figure Painting: Realistic Skin Tone.

Is "How to Paint" the Right Question?

dmaidman — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:28:00 GMT


Ben by Melissa Carroll, 2010, 48 x 60.

When we start making art, we don't start from a position of, "I want to paint like so-and-so," or even "I want to paint well." We should start from a position of, "I have a need to make art." This is an important principle; it gives us the strength to overcome our own bad work, and it illustrates that our first loyalty is to our vision, not a technique.

Study in oil painting techniques and classes on how to oil paint can sometimes obscure the primacy of the vision. We can become convinced that there is a "right" way to make art, and a "wrong" way. Every once in a while, we need to be reminded that there is no right way - the real distinction is between what works for us and what doesn't.

The show "Introducing," currently up at Slag Gallery in New York, is a valuable reminder of the importance of individual vision. "Introducing" showcases figurative work by six young artists with next to nothing in common, except for their ongoing efforts to figure out how to use the visual medium to reflect their own understanding of people and imagery.


		Encounters by Fedele Spadafora, pencil on paper, 2011, 40 x 33.

Melissa Carroll's Ben is an enormously magnified portrait. The face is edged in line, and broken up into irregular regions of distinct color. The style is halfway to a comic book, but the scale and intensity of the portrait act against any trivialization implied in the technique. At her scale, individuality itself becomes abstract, and the face achieves a striking force of generalized pathos.

Aaron Miller's Questions is a nearly monochrome sepia depiction of figures submerged in a simplified landscape. Precise, cool, and quiet, the image does not shout at you or ask you to come to it. Rather, it waits until you stop and look at it, and then it unfolds a sense of melancholy and sorrow.

Adam Miller has several smaller oil painting portraits in the show. His academic technique allows him to subtly express form in a restricted mid-tone range and a limited palette of cool pinks, browns, and grays. He is pushing his imagery by means of subjective distortions, as in his Self-Portrait with a Cold, which seems to curve around the viewer, lending instability and unreliability to the image, mixing menace into the calm.

Bruno Perillo’s paintings are high-contrast black and white renderings of young men and women, vanishing at the edges into negative spaces rendered in gleaming black. His people are frozen in time as memory can seem frozen: they have lost motion and freedom, retaining only what memories retain – the appearances of things, the textures of emotions.

Fedele Spadafora has a group of drawings in the show which combine whimsy and brutality. The figures in each drawing have had their heads replaced by long bright triangles, like overgrown beaks. They are rendered in dense tangles of graphite lines - they look like they could be from an antique children's book. But they are not doing children's book things - they are working at ordinary jobs, socializing, and in one case, executing one another.


Fallen by Jessica Tam, 2010, 60 x 123, oil on two canvases.

Jessica Tam's Fallen is a very large painting - 60"x123" - and comes close to the idiom of Marlene Dumas. A male figure, tremendously foreshortened, looms at the viewer. It consists of large, chaotic brushstrokes, in high contrast, subsuming representation in the sheer energy of the paint itself.

This story has a moral. The moral is that nobody is right. Each of these artists demonstrates a personal vision, and has found a means of expressing that vision in a mode that works for them. The question they asked wasn't, "Is this how we were taught to do it at school?" The question was, "How can I make the picture I want to make?" The question for us, as viewers of the show, is, "Does this make an impact?" I think it does make an impact - and I think it's a good reminder of what our priorities are as artists.

--Daniel


The Affair I by Bruno Perillo, 2010 20 x 16, oil on canvas.	Questions by Aaron Miller, 2009, 18 x 24, Etching and mixed media on panel.	Self-Portrait with a Cold by Adam Miller, 2009, 28 x 22, oil on canvas.

Oil Painting: Daniel E. Greene: Gleaning Inspiration From Formative Experiences

American Artist — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:29:00 GMT

In the Fall 2007 issue of Workshop magazine, we presented Daniel E. Greene's approach to teaching drawing and painting in art-school classes, short-term workshops, and filmed programs. Here we reproduce the article from the November 2007 issue of American Artist that focused on an exhibition of still-life and figure paintings inspired by the experiences and objects of the artist's childhood.

by M. Stephen Doherty

It’s Thrilling
2007, oil, 44 x 72.
All artwork this article
courtesy Gallery Henoch,
New York, New York,
unless otherwise indicated.

Daniel E. Greene is a master painter of portraits, still lifes, figures, and urban scenes executed in pastel or oil. Many of his noncommissioned pictures are based on personal experiences, including a series of New York City subway paintings that took him back to some of the locations he discovered in the 1950s, when he moved from his hometown of Cincinnati to study art and establish his career. His latest series of paintings is based on an earlier time in his life when, as a child, he was captivated by board games, an amusement park, and organized sports. “I loved competitive games that challenged me physically and mentally,” he remembers. “I did well at those competitions, and I think in many ways they prepared me for the problem-solving aspects of being an artist. Painting can be thought of as a similar process of acquiring knowledge, planning strategies, maintaining stamina, and facing challenges.”

That series of paintings, which is currently on view at Gallery Henoch, in New York City, uses game boards, balloons, toys, stuffed animals, signage, and orchids both for their identities and their visual impact. For example, a game board represents aspects of gamesmanship and also serves as an abstract pattern of shapes and colors that work in concert with the figures and objects painted in front of them. The collection of forms also introduces the theme of contrast that has always interested Greene. He continually juxtaposes objects that are animate and inanimate, new and antique, smooth and textured; but the recent paintings go further in contrasting the emotions of boredom and excitement, disappointment and achievement, risk and security.

Dartboard &
Balloons
2007, oil, 42 x 66.

“I first started using game boards, dolls, and other childhood memorabilia in my paintings about 20 years ago, but I didn’t make them the focus of a series until I began working on these paintings about two years ago,” Greene explains. “I placed orchids in front of game boards within square-format paintings to contrast beautiful, living, flowing plant material against well-worn geometric patterns; and then I expanded the scale of the work with nude figures against boards enlarged way beyond their actual size. Eventually I allowed the pictures to become more autobiographical by pulling in images from my recollections of the Coney Island amusement park near Cincinnati.”

Greene documented the development of several of these paintings, including It’s Thrilling. “I visited an amusement park in Connecticut with my family, and I was struck by the images of garishly colored stuffed animals, crudely painted signage, bored attendants, darts, balloons, and colored lights—all of them associated with games of chance and skill,” the artist explains. “I remembered how exciting all of that was to me as a child, how my daughter was reacting with the same enthusiasm, and how the carnival had remained much the same as when it was depicted in drawings and paintings by such artists as Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, and Isabel Bishop. I imagined how I might respond to these scenes of isolated, lonely figures engaged in a business that was intended to be amusing, challenging, and rewarding. I was especially intrigued by a game in which contestants would earn points by rolling balls, with the number of points being used to determine how fast they could race cars occupied by ghosts. The person who won the most points and moved his or her car to the finish line first would win a prize.”

Whack-A-Clown
2007, oil, 54 x 54.

FOCUSING ON THE race of ghosts, Greene made replicas of the moving cars and positioned them on a board, hired a carpenter to construct the players’ booth, and asked one of his daughter’s friends to pose as the attendant. “I was determined to create these new paintings from life, not photographs,” the artist explains. “I searched the internet to locate appropriate stuffed animals, and then by chance I found a bag of them my daughter won at the very same amusement park. It was tedious painting the graphic designs on the booths and the signage above, and it took me a long time to determine where to position the stuffed animals and how to paint portraits of each of them.”

Greene indicates that one of the devices he used to resolve these kinds of compositional issues was to make a quick painted sketch of the objects on sheets of acetate, move them around the canvas, and then decide on the best placement. “It seemed a little curious to be assigning so much importance to toys, but a realist painter has to be willing to paint everything with the same degree of attention and detail,” he says. “They may have been stuffed animals, but they functioned within the pictures as colored shapes that would catch the viewer’s eye and contribute to the context of the ideas being explored.”

Wheel of Fortune
2006, oil, 54 x 54.

It was actually difficult for Greene to replicate the crudely painted signs in the various carnival booths depicted in the series of paintings. “My inclination was to make them more polished and precise, but that would have been inconsistent with the graphic images that are part of a carnival,” he describes. “In most cases, placards were painted decades ago by amateur sign painters to identify the individual booths and to encourage people to compete for prizes.”

The crudeness and harsh colors of the carnival became even more pronounced when Greene developed the paintings Ring-A-Ghoul and Whack-A-Clown. “I actually had to add some unfamiliar paints to my palette to replicate the day-glow orange, iridescent blue, and shocking purple of the bears in Ring-A-Ghoul,” he reveals. “And I spent many hours painting each of the pegs and their cast shadows on the spinning wheel included in Whack-A-Clown. The combination of shapes, textures, and patterns in that painting were unlike any I had ever combined into one picture.”

In recalling the creative process involved in each of these new paintings, Greene points out that for the past 25 years he has documented every aspect of the development of his art. “I keep careful
records of the canvas, board, paper, colors, preparation, mediums, model, preparatory studies, starting and ending dates, and hours of labor involved in each of my paintings,” the artist says. “I
recommend that every artist keep such records for his or her own benefit. I frequently refer to my notes when I want to recall how I achieved certain effects in a painting, where I got the still-life material, who the models were, what medium I used to modify the paints, what varnish I applied once the picture was dry, and where the paintings were exhibited and perhaps sold.”

Ring-A-Ghoul
2007, oil, 54 x 54.

Although some of the detailing of the carnival paintings was tedious, Greene relished the opportunity to paint portraits of the models and to create convincing images of such objects as the balloons in Dartboard & Balloons and the clothing worn by the man in Wheel of Fortune. “I particularly enjoyed painting each of the balloons because several were translucent enough to reveal the numbers underneath, while others reflected the colors and shapes of the nearby balloons,” he explains. “And I decided I wanted to paint a portrait of the young man in Wheel of Fortune as soon as he arrived at my studio in North Salem, New York, to model for one of my summer workshops. He was actually wearing that orange shirt and the decorated jean jacket, and I thought they characterized the kind of rebellious, free-spirited drifter who would take off to join the circus. His pensive gaze also suggested the contradictory emotions of a man who is supposed to be enticing people with a game of fun, excitement, and reward.”

In addition to including a captivating portrait in Wheel of Fortune, Greene used the opportunity to develop an elaborate border along the top of this oil painting. “I have long been fascinated by the decorative elements in Russian icons and gold-leaf decorations,” the artist says. “On some level the antique boards and well-worn signs serve a similar decorative function in the carnival paintings.”

Greene was able to take the carnival artifacts to another level of expression in the painting Dartman by including several menacing images. “On one level, the painting uses a standard portrait device of positioning a figure against a warm, brown background,” he describes. “But when you consider that the man is holding sharply pointed darts used to pop the balloons and penetrate the red-and-white wheel, and that there is a folk-art game in which contestants use a pistol to shoot metal objects extending from a man’s mouth, you recognize that games often involve a level of violence and destruction. I suppose one could extend that recognition to include the current video games that treat violence as a form of entertainment.”

Dartman
2006, oil, 68 x 68.
Private collection.

Greene created the paintings included in this current New York exhibition on single- and double-primed Claessens linen and Fredrix No. 11 single-primed linen using the Daniel E. Greene line of oil colors manufactured by Jack Richeson & Co., as well as a few tubes of paint made by Winsor & Newton and Grumbacher. His standard medium is a mixture of 1/3 stand oil and 2/3 turpentine; but he does occasionally use a gel medium such as Maroger, as well as an oiling-out medium made with a higher percentage of stand oil thinned with turpentine (5 to 1, 4 to 1, or 1 to 1).

About the Artist
Daniel E. Greene is a former instructor of painting at the National Academy and the Art Students League of New York, both in Manhattan. In 1969 he was elected to the National Academy; in 1983 the Pastel Society of America elected him to the Pastel Hall of Fame; in 1995 he received the John Singer Sargent Award from The American Society of Portrait Artists; in 2001 he was awarded the Gold Medal from the Portrait Society of America; and in 2003 he received the Gold Medal from the Salmagundi Art Club, in New York City. Greene is the author of Pastel and The Art of Pastel (Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, New York); he is the subject of six instructional videos and DVDs; and he has endorsed sets of pastel and oil manufactured by Jack Richeson & Co., as well as brushes manufactured by Silver Brush Limited. For more information on Greene or his art supplies, visit his websites at www.danielgreeneartist.com and www.wallstreetart.net. For more information on Gallery Henoch, where Greene’s paintings are on exhibition from October 11 through November 4, visit www.galleryhenoch.com.

M. Stephen Doherty is the editor-in-chief and publisher of American Artist.

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Oil Painting: Daniel E. Greene: Gleaning Inspiration From Formative Experiences

American Artist — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:45:00 GMT

In an exhibition opening this month in New York City, Daniel E. Greene presents still-life and figure paintings inspired by the experiences and objects of his childhood. Those paintings allowed him to explore the themes of challenge, contrast, and competition.

by M. Stephen Doherty

It’s Thrilling
2007, oil, 44 x 72.
All artwork this article
courtesy Gallery Henoch,
New York, New York,
unless otherwise indicated.

Dartboard &
Balloons
2007, oil, 42 x 66.

Whack-A-Clown
2007, oil, 54 x 54.

Wheel of Fortune
2006, oil, 54 x 54.

Ring-A-Ghoul
2007, oil, 54 x 54.

Dartman
2006, oil, 68 x 68.
Private collection.

M. Stephen Doherty is the editor-in-chief and publisher of American Artist.

Oil Painting: Step by Step: Johnnie Liliedahl's "Lady in White"

American Artist — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:57:00 GMT

In the fall 2007 issue of Watercolor, Johnnie Liliedahl discussed Old Master approaches that help her students understand the basics of oil painting. Here, we present a demonstration for her painting Lady in White.


Reference: A photograph of a model who posed for this portrait painting demonstration.	Step 1: Liliedahl’s drawing of the model on a toned canvas.	Step 2: The grisaille underpainting of the model.	The Completed Demonstration: Lady in White 2005, oil, 30 x 24. Collection the artist.

Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Light on the Ground

American Artist — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:37:00 GMT

Herrick adjusts the light mass on the ground below the children, and lightens the middle girl's face.

I have been adding to the light mass on the ground below the kids. This may be overstated right now, but I can readjust this later.

I also keyed up the light in the middle girl's face.

About the Artist
Garth Herrick was a semifinalist in the Smithsonian Institution’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and was awarded a certificate of excellence by the Portrait Society of America at their 2006 International Portrait Competition. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he received the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, the Stewardson Prize, and the Thouron Prize. Herrick’s commissions include portraits of eight notable federal judges, a governor, a mayor and numerous cultural, educational, and business leaders. His work hangs in a number of public, corporate, and private collections. View his work at www.garthherrick.com.

Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Lightening the Key

American Artist — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:19:00 GMT

The artist realizes that he needs to lighten the boy's shirt and face.

I need to lighten the boy's face and shirt, and that means everything needs to be keyed up higher in the same way. It is a frustrating but necessary adjustment.

Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Copying a Notable Portrait

American Artist — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:41:00 GMT

The Historical Society of the United States District Court has commissioned Herrick to paint a copy of an original Gilbert Stuart portrait for their collection.

Another diversion—I'm in the process of copying an original Gilbert Stuart portrait of an 18th century Philadelphian, an early federal judge named the Honorable William Lewis. He served just one year—1791—then he went back into private practice so he could make a better living.

The Historical Society of the United States District Court has commissioned this copy for their collection. They directed me to another copy of the original, painted in the 1960s, as a reference. It is indeed a fine copy, but I desired to see the original if at all possible. After considerable sleuthing, and through a string of private contacts, the original was located, and its owner was delighted about the additional copy commission. I was allowed to study the original for one hour one morning to make several digital reference photographs, take measurements, and very importantly, do a quick oil study sketch to basically match up some colors and values. I would be lost without that sketch.

The flesh tints are rather warm and ruddy in the original, and the light is keyed in the typically darker 18th-century mode to accommodate richer colors from an earth palette. I decided to use the same select colors of paint as would have been available to Gilbert Stuart, though I am not claiming to use the same actual palette as he did. The reason for using historic pigments is to more easily mimic the color effects and paint handling seen in the original portrait. Actually I am finding it a challenge to adapt to a thick flake white, and to really load the thickness of the white so it will maintain opacity over the centuries. I have also used real vermilion for the genuine look of the reds. There is still much more to do!

I have included the original painting, my initial oil sketch for the underpainting, the progress thus far, and the portrait and the color study in front of the ongoing children's portrait—presented together to provide a sense of scale.

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Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: A College President

American Artist — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:00:00 GMT

The artist takes a break from Of Scions and Sunlight to complete this portrait of a college president.

I often have to interrupt one commission to finish another. Recently, I had to put aside Of Scions and Sunlight to complete this portrait of a college president. I toned the 43”-x-37” canvas with brown ochre light, which is a lot more golden in a transparent state—almost too much.

As you can see, I was not happy with my first attempt at painting the head, so I simply flipped the canvas and started again. The better start gave me the confidence to proceed. The separate elements of the composition fell into place and became more dimensional in their interrelationships as I covered the golden ground color, piece by piece. Often as I continue to close up passages over the ground, I see where I need to revise and further develop what has already been indicated in paint. There is a quite a lot to do, and the unveiling is coming up quickly. Of Scions and Sunlight will have to wait!

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Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Working on Other Portraits

American Artist — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Herrick takes a break from this portrait to work on other projects.

The client has been great—they were more concerned with getting the best painting than getting the finished piece at a particular time. But because the painting was taking up a lot of space in my studio and uses my best easel, I am very motivated to keep it moving along. In between painting sessions on this piece, I have to complete other commissions. For example, I just completed this painting of a Federal judge, the late honorable Clifford Scott Green.

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