Alla Prima Portraits

I and a few friends have been honing our skills together recently by painting models in 2 1/2 hour sessions. It's exciting, but daunting, too, to be working alongside mega-talented artists such as Ellen Cooper, Lea Wight, Garth Herrick, and Stephen Early. On one occasion I painted with another group of amazingly talented artists, Rachel Constantine, Diane Feissel, and Nancy Bea Miller. Here are my efforts of the past few weeks.

I'll be on the Faculty at the Portrait Society of America Conference

I'm happy to announce that, this year, I'll be on the faculty at The Art of the Portrait, the annual conference of the Portrait Society of America.

This means that you will see me around a lot, participating in several events:

1) Face-Off: A unique program in which fifteen leading artists gather to paint from models. Attendees will vote on their favorite artist, who will then demonstrate on Saturday afternoon for the plenary session. Second, the completed paintings will be part of a silent auction during the weekend, so you will have a chance to collect a painting by an artist you admire. Participating artists: Casey Baugh, Ryan Brown, Ellen Cooper, Michelle Dunaway, Stephen Early, John Ennis, Rose Frantzen, David Jon Kassan, Robert Liberace, Bart Lindstrom, Susan Lyon, Tony Pro, Alexandra Tyng, Mary Whyte, and Lea Wight.

2) Beyond the Face: New Works by Daniel Greene, Alexandra Tyng, and Mary Whyte I will be showing examples of my figurative portraiture and discussing my process and the way in which I develop the ideas and symbolism of each work. Mary Whyte and Daniel Greene will also show their amazing new work--this should be awesome!

3) Lunch and Learn If you want a relaxed, informal time to ask questions and discuss art with me (or certain other faculty members), and you don't mind if we're all chewing while we talk, sign up ahead of time for this event.

4) Portfolio Critiques You don't need to sign up for this, just show up at the critique session with your portfolio.

The Annual Art of the Portrait Conference will take place in Philadelphia this year, on Memorial Day Weekend. Come see the winning paintings and sculpture on display at the conference. The weekend is packed full of events--painting demonstrations, panel discussions, talks, and power-point presentations. Art vendors will be selling a dazzling array of products. You might even win a top-of-the-line, super-duper easel!

The Portrait Society of America, founded in 1998, is a national 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization to further the tradition of fine art portraiture and figurative art.

For more information, or to register, click here.

You can also read about the Conference and participating artists on the Portrait Society's blog.

Vision to Hand awarded PSA Certificate of Excellence 2011

I'm happy to announce that Vision to Hand (oil on linen, 36" x 26") received a Certificate of Excellence from the Portrait Society of America this year!

It's what I call a "figurative portrait" because it is both a portrait of artist Diane Feissel, and also a figurative work that conveys an idea that is relevant to the subject, and also goes beyond the subject. I guess you could say that I "use" the subject to explore a theme, but she's not just a model, a tabula rasa onto which I project that constellation of ideas; she's an individual who is also partly the source of these ideas.

Matthew Inness asked me to describe my thoughts about this painting, and he posted the painting and description in his wonderful blog Underpaintings. (If you like realist art and you haven't yet read Matt's blog, check it out. You won't want to miss all the interesting news and commentary.) Thank you, Matt, for including my work along with all the other Portrait Society award-winning entries. Congratulations to all these exceptional artists!

Two Honorable Mentions in the Portrait Society Members' Showcase

Many thanks to the Portrait Society of America for awarding Honorable Mentions to two of my paintings in the 2010-11 Members' Showcase Competition! The categories were lots of fun this year for a lot of artists like me who not only paint portraits, but also other genres, including landscape and still life.
The Porcupines From Cadillac, 28" x 42"--!st Honorable Mention, Landscape

Louis I. Kahn, 52" x 36" 5th Honorable Mention, Noncommissioned Portrait

The "Outside the Box" category was a great idea--it was a lot of fun thinking about what to enter, and I'm curious to see how some of the other artists interpreted the idea and what they entered.

"A Day in the Life. . ."

When artist Wende Caporale asked me if she could come to my studio to interview me for an article, I was surprised and honored. to say the least. Wende has been writing a very interesting series of articles in the Portrait Society of America's section of International Artist Magazine, and I always enjoy reading her articles. First of all, she picks a variety of artists to write about, second of all, her way of following an artist through a day's work is original, and she always reveals things about artists that don't come to light in a more formal type of article or interview. Actually, as the day approached, I was little nervous, wondering about what she would say! (My fears were unfounded.)

What resulted was a very intricate and sensitive description of the work I have been doing towards my upcoming show at the Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, Maine. The show will combine my landscape and figurative work, ranging from large aerial landscapes to intimate scenes of particular places and the people who inhabit them. The gallery hasn't firmed up the date yet, but it will be sometime in the summer of 2011.

The other result of this experience was that I got to spend a day with Wende, who is a delightful, insightful and empathetic person. I'm so glad to have had the chance to get to know her a little better and spend several hours talking about a variety of things!

"Inspiring Figures" at the Butler Institute

On September 12 my husband and I made the 6-hour drive to Youngstown OH to attend the opening reception of "inspiring Figures" at the Butler Institute of American Art. I know it sounds self-serving to say I was inspired by an exhiit that includes my own work, but I have to spread the word and say this was one of the most exciting shows I've been to recently, for several reasons. First, the artwork, by 30 living artists (ten invited and 20 juried) and ten historically significant artists, was impressive in its quality and variety: second, this was an unusual show in that it showcases the work of contemporary and traditional realist (or representational) figure painting in a museum venue; third, although women are drastically under-represented in museum collections, this was a show solely of art by women; and last, the concept of mutual inspiration that underlies this show is different from the concept of linear "legacy."

Inspiring Figures is the brainchild of the Cecilia Beaux Forum of the Portrait Society of America, and it was a good five years in the making. It is an exhibit that explores the roles of American women artists as innovators, sources of inspiration, and mentors.

Here is a list of the artists in the show: Leslie Adams, Carol Arnold, Rose Bartolini, Cecilia Beaux, Isabele Bishop, Colleen Browning, Wende Caporale, Mary Cassatt, Ellen Cooper, Grace DeVito, Marina Dieul, Ellen Eagle, Cynthia Feustel, Rose Frantzen, Nancy Guzik, Lily Harmon, Jane Lund, Sherrie McGraw, Mary Beth McKenzie, Nicole Mone, Kay Polk, Catherine Prescott, Danielle Richard, Lenka Rubenstein, Kate Sammons, Laura Sanders, Leona Shanks, Rhoda Sherbell, Sharon Sprung, Laura Tilden, Alexandra Tyng, Dawn Whitelaw, Patricia Watwood, Mary Whyte, and Lea Wight


Here is my painting: Claude and Pamela Frank, oil on linen, 52" x 48"

Some photos from the opening. . .
And this is how it looked hanging on the wall.
Leslie Adams with her portrait of artist Michael Shane Neal.
Catherine Prescott with her life-sized work Legacy: Portrait of Val
Here I am with artists Jane Lund and Wende Caporale.
After the opening, Nancy Guzik, Rose Frantzen, Lea Wight, Chuck Morris (Rose's husband) and Leon Shanks stand on the steps of the Butler.
A toast at a nearby cafe.
Rose Frantzen drew quite a crowd as she talked about her work and work process.
Marina Dieul was not able to make the opeing but her work Aenor won the Grand Prize.
Ellen Cooper won Second Place for her portrait Judy.

Views from the Air

What do portraits have to do with aerial landsapes? You might well ask!

If you are planning to attend the Portrait Society of America annual Art of the Portrait Conference, and you happen to have signed up for Calvin Goodman's first breakout session on Friday afternoon, you'll find out. I'll be giving a power-point talk on my aerial landscape paintings and how I go about getting reference material for them. I will also try to explain how these large panoramas are related to my other landscape paintings, my figurative work, and my portraits. Copies of my essay "The sky is Not the Limit," will be available.

Hope to see you there!

Four-Way Strategy: Fourth-Place Winner

This portrait was a lot of fun to paint. It is of four children who live in London, commissioned as a gift for their grandparents. Recently I was very pleased to find out that it was awarded Fourth Place by the Portrait Society of America in their Members' Showcase Competition, "Mulitple Figures" category.

There is a really nice story behind this painting. My first contact with this family was when I painted the children's grandfather, author and presidential speechwriter, around 1995 or 6. There was an unveiling party at the Union League back then. A few years ago, his daughter commissioned me to paint her four children, which became the portrait you see here. After that, both the children and their mother, and the grandparents have visited my studio on separate occasions. I feel blessed to know these wonderful people. This kind of ongoing relationship with families of clients probably sounds familiar to most portrait painters--and it's one of the best things about painting portraits.

Speaking in front of 800 people!

Last weekend I unveiled my portrait of George A. ("Frolic") Weymouth at the Portrait Society of America's annual conference. This year it happened to be held in Philadelphia, and the Leadership in the Arts Award was given to Mr. Weymouth, a landscape and portrait painter who also founded the Brandywine River Conservancy and Museum, and is the museum's present director. The Portrait Society asked me to paint a portrait of Mr. Weymouth as part of the award. There was an unveiling ceremony and I had to "say a few words." Well, I have to say that the anticipation of standing up there in front of 800 people was far worse than the actual experience!

I should add that I actually envisioned this as an opportunity to combine the genres of portrait and landscape into one painting. It was lots of fun to paint!

Here I am up there at the podium...and here is the portrait.