"Celebrating the Portrait as Art"

Nan Talking, oil on linen, 32" x 26"

When I was in my 20s I was told that portraiture was commercial art and that I could not be taken seriously as an artist if I kept on painting portraits. Having lived through that era, continuing to paint portraits while determinedly showing other work in galleries, it's satisfying to know the portrait is once again appreciated as fine art.

 Gary Haynes of Haynes Galleries takes portraiture and figurative art seriously. He attends the annual conference of the Portrait Society of America, and work by many of its award winning artists are hanging in his gallery. This month, Haynes Galleries will be hosting a group show:

Celebrating the Portrait as Art

April 18-May 24, 2014

Reception Friday, April 18, 5:00-7:30 p.m.

1600 Division Street, Nashville, TN

The show will open first in the Nashville gallery space and travel to Thomaston, Maine this summer. Here is a link to all the pertinent information: http://haynesgalleries.com/hgSite/pages/newsAndEvents/newsAndEvents-PortraitAsArtNash.html

I will have one portrait in the Nashville show. (I don't show in Haynes' Maine location since I show at the Dowling Walsh Gallery up the road.)

With portraits by many outstanding artists including Ellen Cooper, Lea Colie Wight, Aaron Westerberg,  Terry Strickland, Linda Tracey Brandon, Joseph Bolderer, Suchitra Bhosle, Diane Feissel, Alia El-Bermani, Stephen Bauman, Katie O'Hagan,  Lisa Gloria, Linda Lee Nelson, T. J. Cunningham, Cindy Procious, and many others, this will be a show worth seeing!

Recent Portrait Unveiling

Early this month, my portrait of Ben and Gerri LeBow was unveiled and hung in the new Gerri C. LeBow Hall of the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University. The building replaces an older, outdated facility, and will truly be a beautiful and functional centerpiece of the school for many years to come. I feel honored to have been asked to paint this portrait. For a more detailed description of the portrait and the event, click on this link.

Here is a photo of me with Mr. LeBow in front of the painting. (The portrait looks a little dark because lighting was not yet installed.)

At the opening, I sat at a table with the LeBow grandchildren, who were all delightful young people. I also got a chance to reconnect with some of my former and future portrait "subjects." The surprise of the evening was seeing my childhood friend Daniela Voith. Danelli and I were in the same class at the Miquon School and shared many adventures. She was at the opening because her architectural firm, Voith and Mactavish, designed the beautiful new building! My husband snapped this photo of us.

Article in American Arts Quarterly

Last summer I met author Stephen May at the Dowling Walsh Gallery and we went across the street to an outdoor seafood restaurant for lunch. Stephen and I had arranged to meet because he was going to be writing an article on my work for American Arts Quarterly. I was very excited at the prospect of being featured in such a prestigious art journal. We sat down and started chatting. Steve was charming, super intelligent and perceptive--and he asked such good questions I found myself talking way too much. Amazingly, he was able not only to make sense of what I said, but also to make a terrific article out of it.

Meanwhile, my husband was enjoying some quiet time away from his talkative wife in the local coffee shop, where he was reading the latest Dick Francis thriller. Definitely a win-win situation.

The article, which was published in the Winter 2013 issue of AAQ, can be found here. Upon looking through the magazine, I discovered I was in great company: also in this issue is an article on the wonderful work of my good friend, artist Catherine Prescott.

Art Makes Life at the Butler

I'm very pleased to announce that my portrait of Marina Dieul, Art Makes Life, was selected for inclusion in the 75th Midyear Exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art.

If you haven't been to the Butler, it's worth a trip to Youngstown, Ohio to see this small gem of a museum full of truly magnificent examples of work by American artists of all eras of this country's history. The Midyear show is a lot of fun to see. There will be 100 works on display, selected from over 1,000 entries. You might see some artists you know there. Last year at the opening reception I met Jeff Gola, Stanka Kordic and Leslie Adams, all of whom had work in the show.

75th NATIONAL MIDYEAR SHOW

The Butler Institute of American Art

524 Wick Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio

Meet the Artists Reception and Awards Ceremony, Sunday, June 26th, noon to 3 p.m.

Show Dates: June 26th--August 28th, 2011

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!

Portrait show opening reception

Twelve artists ended up participating in the exhibit, and here is a group shot of most of them (L to R); Catherine Prescott, Addie Cooper, John Ennis, Ellen Cooper, Nancy Bea Miller, me, Garth Herrick, Ernie Norcia, Jennifer Frudakis, and Glenn Harrington. Missing from the photo are Rachel Constantine and Jimm Scannell. The opening reception went very well, and we had a nice review in the Main Line Times.

Portraiture seems to be at the center of a major clash in the art world these days. On one extreme there are those who defend the Modern and Contemporary art movements and categorically despise any art that hints of traditional methods or subjects. On the other extreme are artists whose work is strongly reminiscent of the past and who despise Modern and Contemporary art. Critics like Blake Gopnick of the Washington Post have made some accurate criticisms of traditional portraiture, yet seem unable to distinguish between the more subtle differences between artists, labeling it all as schlocky. Part of the reason portraiture is taking the heat is that, for a long time, it existed as a reactionary enclave of the art world. The main avant-garde art scene did not recognize realism, and especially portraiture and figurative painting, until very recently. You may read this and think, "Alex is not an art historian--she doesn't know what she is talking about," and that is okay with me. I only have an undergraduate degree in art history. But I've been observing and experiencing big changes in the art world recently, and this is my opinion. Personally, I appreciate both contemporary and traditional art. I consider my own work to be somewhere in the middle; maybe "contemporary realism" would be the most accurate description. Why should we dismiss an expressionistic figure by saying the artist obviously painted like that because he/she didn't know how to draw? Why should we dismiss a realistic portrait that shows great skill, expression and soul because it is not painted in a cool style? I will be interested to see what the press says about portraiture in the next few years. Will it be ignored? Villified? Praised? What styles will be considered "true art" or "commercial" and why? This show is only a minor one compared to the Mancini show or the Cecilia Beaux show, but I hope it will raise some questions about these issues.

Portraiture: A Philadelphia Tradition

I'm delighted to announce that the Wayne Art Center will be hosting a group portrait show! It will run from October 24 through November 16. This area is home to such a lot of talented portrait painters and it is wonderful that the Wayne Art Center thought to offer a venue in which to showcase their work.

The participating artists are: Rachel Constantine, Addie Cooper, Ellen Cooper, John Ennis, Jennifer Frudakis, Bill Hanson, Glenn Harrington, Garth Herrick, Nancy Bea Miller, Ernie Norcia, Catherine Prescott, Jimm Scannell, and myself.

The opening reception will be on Sunday, October 28, from 3-5 p.m.

There will be a group portrait demo on Thursday, November 1, at 7:00 p.m.

There will be an informal artists' gallery talk on Thursday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. Lunch will be served.

We have such a long and venerable tradition of portraiture in Philadelphia that includes Charles Wilson Peale, Cecilia Beaux, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, and Alice Kent Stoddard. Even John Singer Sargent can be included in this list because his parents were from Philadelphia. More recently we have Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, Bo Bartlett, and Nelson Shanks. And that's just off the top of my head, so please excuse me if I missed some important artists. I'm hoping that this kind of show will happen again before long, and that we will be able to include more artists next time.