Planes of Justin's Face

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In my portrait painting class, I have been talking to the students a lot about the planes of the face and I borrowed an Asaro head to use as a reference. So I thought it'd be fun to apply the Asaro model to a real portrait as a visual aid. Usually I work from life, or at least partially. This was done entirely from a photograph. Not a great photo it's true. So here is the result:

So, what about the Mixed Media portfolio?

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The Mixed Media Portfolio
  

The Mixed Media work has been a bit neglected in this blog, so I thought I'd write a post about a couple of the paintings in it. The following is an elaboration on my Artist's Statement as it applies to one or two paintings.

 The Wedding Portrait

The mixed media pieces are about the ephemerality of life; the nebulousness of memory and of dreams. Their starting point is always the figure or, in the case of the paintings I am going to discuss here, a number of figures. To begin with, I gather, or invent, evidence of a life: drawings, photographs, letters, snippets from newspapers, lists from the phone book, maps, etc. The process of making the artwork is a process of losing, reclaiming and, again, losing the evidence and, in so doing, a fleetingness occurs and, perhaps, new meanings too. I try to hold on to details as you would on waking from a dream that is dissolving even as you try to grasp it and hold on to it. Yet even as the meaning of the dream recedes beyond reach, it leaves a residue: the ghost of a feeling; a mood; an atmosphere. The Wedding Portrait above (+ detail below) is an imagined painting of my grandmother—I never knew my grandparents or saw their wedding photographs, so they are mysterious to me. The figures in the background are based on an old family photograph, a copy of which is also embedded in the painting. This photograph includes an aunt and uncle who both died young and so also are out of my ken. Also included are many more recent photographs and other objects, materials etc, in the fabric of the painting that hint at the posterity that will result from this wedding day. 

 

The Wedding Portrait - detail

Besides the bride, the only figure who is clearly defined, there are other painted figures: wedding guests, aunts and uncles, perhaps the groom. All of these are shadowy—their features are lost in the mists of time as those on the periphery of our lives tend to be. The flowers were taken from a magazine of flower arrangements for Valentine's Day, but they are faded and have a funeral aspect to them; they are both her wedding bouquet and her memorial bouquet as the painting is a wedding and a memorial portrait.

This same experience of trying to grasp onto receding memories often also applies to those who are no longer alive. Over time, slippage occurs in that their corporeality, their very aliveness, diminishes in our memories and becomes increasingly difficult to grasp; a consequence of letting go, and perhaps a blessing. But losing hold can also be a source of distress and bring about feelings of betrayal to the lost loved one 

Lost Time

The basis of the painting, above, entitled Lost Time was a photograph of a lot of children on the back of a donkey—these were my siblings and cousins. I once showed this photograph to a friend while describing the story of the photo which was that, immediately after the photo was taken, my uncle poked the donkey which then bucked and we all tumbled off. I described in detail the fear, the grabbing onto the child in front, the falling, the crying, etc. But when she asked which child was I, I saw that I was not on the donkey at all, but on the ground next to it. The photograph completely contradicted my memory of the event - a memory so strong that, despite having looked at the physical photograph many times over the years, I had failed to see the evidence before my eyes that, although a witness, the memory of the experience was not mine, perhaps it was my sister's who was among the kids on the donkey. This painting is actually about this sister. She died in 1999, just missing the millennium. The painting includes many items from her life including her passport, letters, maps, a contact sheet of "selfie" images she made, etc. Proof that she existed.

Lost Time - detail

These are common experiences to all of us, we all dream, have memories real and imagined—some are other people's stories that we have incorporated into our cache, as I clearly did with the donkey story. Eventually, who can tell what is real, dreamed, or stolen? The memory selects what to keep and what not to keep, and its choices can be quite selective and arbitrary; the memory is a novelist—if it comes across a good story or anecdote, it will appropriate it. These are the ideas I am exploring as I work on these paintings.

Once again thank you, dear Phantom reader, for your time and patience. And remember to

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Code Caamp

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Code Ca(a)mp

 

Being relatively new to the faculty at the Woodstock School of Art (WSA) and having discovered that other instructors have "codes," I thought I'd better invent one ASAP. I am happy to report that I came up with an acronym in double quick time and one which describes accurately, and in the right order, the methodology I encourage my students to use and is easy to remember. The acronym is CAAMP - it is designed with figure drawing in mind, and the head in particular as that is what my course at the Woodstock School of Art is about - and works as follows:

C - Composition - plan your image on the page.

A - Angles - check the angles of the pose to position the head correctly.

A - Anchor - choose one; something to act as a frame of reference, might be an eye or an ear.
M - Measure - referring to your anchor to find:
P  - Proportion.

Ta da!

All of the above aid in practicing "O" for Observation - drawing from life is first and foremost an exercise in acute and deliberate observation.

The above acronym is, I admit, the second effort. The first had a double P as well as a double A for: "CAAMPP." The second P is for "Planes" (of the face - which I also bang on about a good deal), but I worried that this was overkill - one doubling up was enough perhaps. In truth, I was skeptical of the double "A" too but, in addition to deciding that the two were indispensable, I feel it works because of the sheepish aspect of my name - as a teenager I had to endure a lot of people (i.e: boys) bleating at me as I walked by - Baa Baaa, etc. So when you say CAAMP, you must bleat the "As" so as never to forget who invented this acronym. That's all for tonight folks - by folks I mean you, dear Phan, my Phanton fan reader... Next time, I will write a little about my Mixed Media work.  Now:                    

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New Year - 2014

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Planes of the Head via the "Asaro" model

Belated Happy New Year 2014. I have been preoccupied with preparing and planning my new portrait drawing & painting course at the WSA (Woodstock School of Art) and am happy to report that it is going well - we have had two classes so far, first one on the "planes of the head" with a diagrammatic model  (as above), and last week the emphasis was on proportion - this time with a live model. I am very pleased with the students and their progress so far, and they seem to be pleased with me so that's all good. I will document their progress and post a few examples here anon.

Also all painting sessions are back in full swing - those are the independent painting group on Wednesday mornings and the Open Studio (both at WSA) on Thursday mornings - the sketch below is from the latter.

One-minute warm-up sketches

Phillis Kelly aka The Reggae Singer, 24x24", 2014 - Right: photo of Phillis - note, the photo was only used at the very end stage of the painting when Phillis was no longer available.

And I completed my painting of Phillis - the above photo is actually one or two steps before the finalization of the painting  - edges have been softened and the dress color pushed back. And the colors in the painting higher key that reality. Plus the color in the photo is off compared to the colors in the studio. The portrait was painted 90% from life but I had to complete it from photos which was a drag as photographs flatten so much - the cheekbone are not at all prominent in the photo, but I decided to stick with what I saw with my own eye-balls in the studio and not modify it according to the photo. I very much hope I can make a stop-motion video of the making of this painting - it has been the most challenging so far. Well, that's enough for now - goodnight Phan.

December 24, 2013 - Update

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First off, I am excited about my upcoming portrait painting class at the Woodstock School of Art starting on January 8th, 2014 from 1:00 - 4:00 pm. So will be refining plans for that in the next few weeks. Click HERE for info.

I am also pleased with my latest 12x12 - the model is Naoko, who is also a painter.

My other plan for the hols is to finish my unfinished paintings. One painting done and ensconsed in its new home is "Trey" - a full length portrait of my good friend and radio documentary-maker extraordinaire, Trey Kay. The painting + detail images are now added to my Portraits Portfolio on the website but am including one here too and a photo of the portrait with Trey - not a very good quality photo alas.

My biggest bugbear right now is a profile portrait I am working of the beautiful Phillis Kelly. This is where it is right now. The thing with profiles is that there is no room for fudging. It is what it is. I hope to make an animated slide show of the various morphings that this piece will have gone through before it is finished. Well, that's it for now, dear Phan.

Why are my portfolios so diverse? You ask...

Okay, for that (phantom) reader out there who feels that the work in the portfolios in my website is very diverse, let me say that you are not mistaken. After many years working in a semi-abstract vernacular, while not abandoning my mixed-media explorations, I have returned to my first love which is the figure and, in particular, the face. How can one resist the human face - that pattern that is imprinted on us from the first moment of our lives.

Yet I cannot tell you, dear reader (are you there?), how often I have heard people dismiss the ability to draw and paint from observation - most of mine are from life - as being a mere "facility" that, with a little effort, anyone can pick up, like tracing a dot-to-dot in a child's coloring book, presumably. Mostly those people - artists working in non-rep modes - have not, so far, "picked it up" themselves. In the meantime others that I know, accomplished artists, have spent half a lifetime trying to chase down that elusive thing, the human face and, despite sharply honing their skills of observation and deepening their technical knowledge, continue to be eluded by that will o' the wisp: the life force within. Being able to see deeply and transform that knowledge into an image is not a facility, it is a gift - quite a rare gift and I am fortunate to possess it to some reasonable extent.

I am no hater of non-representational art - see my own Mixed Media portfolio on this website - and much of the art I write about is installation, assemblage, conceptual, and abstract. But all art is abstract, certainly in its execution. A case in point is Ellsworth Kelly, one of the most abstract artists of our time, still with us at age 90. His most well-known paintings tend to be vibrant monochromes on shaped canvases - no Rotho-esque romantic washes or soft edges. But Kelly is a superb draftsman who draws every day from nature and takes what he discovers there into his painting. When I read what Kelly says about his most abstract work, I think "but that is what I am thinking when I am painting a face." The difference is that he takes those shapes he sees in nature, separates them from their context, unifies the color, and reproduces them on a monumental scale. Here are some of his plant drawings:  http://mhsartgallerymac.wikispaces.com/Ellsworth+Kelly 

That is enough waffle out of me for now, so I shall leave you, Phantom Reader (may I call you Phan for short?), to draw your own conclusions.

Oh wait - while I have your attention. Do check out my commentaries about art on Roll Magazine online. Latest is about the new, massive show going on right now (until Dec 15, 2013) at Industry City in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn: Come Together: Surviving Sandy. The show is a fund-raiser for artists affected by Hurricane Sandy last year and includes both artist victims and those wanted to support the cause, 300 in all. Artists include a number of "Bold Face" names: Alex Katz, Chuck Close, Kiki Smith, Shirin Neshat and very interesting works by Shojo Azari, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Dustin Yellin, Diana Cooper, Corban Walker (from my old alma mater) among many others and also under-recognized and emerging artists. A good read, if I say so myself.

Also check out my article immediately before the Surviving Sandy piece - this is about a very different kind of art show: The Woodstock Landscape, Then and Now, and is worthy of note if you are interested in how Woodstock became "Woodstock" and why it all happened in New York State instead of, oh, North Carolina...

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Work-in-Progress and Open Studio news

Hellooooooooooooooo

I just started this new blog - annoyingly I wasn't able to upload my already existing Live Journal blog - and have decided to make this one about work-in-progress, news for what's going on in the Open Studio that I monitor at the Woodstock School of Art (WSA), and whatever else seems worthy of note including the occasional rant.

First Item of Note: check out my commentaries about art on Roll Magazine online. Latest is about the new, massive show going on right now (until Dec 15, 2013) at Industry City in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn: Come Together: Surviving Sandy. Artists include a number of "Bold Face" names: Alex Katz, Chuck Close, Kiki Smith, Shirin Neshat and very interesting works by Shojo Azari, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Dustin Yellin, Diana Cooper, Corban Walker (from my old alma mater) among many others and also under-recognized and emerging artists. A good read, if I say so myself.

Also Worthy of Note: I am scheduled to teach a class at the Woodstock School of Art (WSA) entitled "The Contemporary Portrait" - this will begin on January 8th just to coincide with all those New Year's resolutions so, Phantom, take note*. The class will run for 8 weeks - usually at WSA people pay for each set of four classes in advance and that works out at $140 or $35 per class. If there is an appetite for more, we shall continue for another four weeks. We will begin with drawing and, fairly soon, work up to painting. For more info and *to sign up, go to the WSA website (at this point, they still haven't put the new 2014 schedule up).

Life Drawing & Painting Open Studio - it is every Thursday morning at the beautiful Woodstock School of Art and only costs $20 including the model fee, or $50 for four sessions if paid in advance (no make-ups though). We have long poses that often continue for three weeks so many of us paint. Starting this Thursday (November 7th) we have a three week pose with Ann. And then, hopefully, a three-week pose (model TBA), thereby bring us up to the holidays.

WEDNESDAY GROUP: from November 6, four of us are starting an independent painting group also at WSA. Unlike the Thursday Open Studio which is open to all comers, we want this group to consist of seven artists, six committed to being regular participants + one guest or floating artist so that we always have good access to the model. At the time of writing we are still looking for our sixth. Like the Thursday group it will be a long pose - up to three or possibly four weeks per pose.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS: first is a mock up of the 12"x 12" profile photo project that I am working on with a mix of some finished 12 x 12s, and some cropped photos of larger paintings. I like the idea that it would be huge.

Below are two pieces I am in need of completing, first is a 20 x 20. Second is approx 65" x 24" full length portrait. The subject mostly needs facial hair at this point.

   .

I cropped the face for the 12 x 12 mock-up above.

Below are some images that show my process - this painting I just finished yesterday (Nov, 2013)

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