Emma in Purple
 

This is oil, 16" x 20", on a gessoed board from www.realgesso.com.

Emma's parents are art collectors and I placed her in front of one of their paintings. She is a very creative young lady and I was excited that everybody went along with my idea for the beads around her head.

She it lovely Linda! I love the colors you have used.

This is great Linda! It has a neat fairy/elf thing going on there also.

Linda,

Your beautiful mythic lady looks like she has recently emerged from the deep blue sea. A little mermaid?
Great contrasts.

Allan

Linda,

This is a lovely portrait.

Linda,

Beautiful painting - The colors are wonderful!

Really lovely Linda! --with sort of an other-worldly mystical feel to it. How nice that the clients were open-minded enough to let you do something unique. She's beautiful.

Love the DNA strands!

(Just kiddin' there.)

I just watched Troy last night, and this reminds me of the laurel leaf crowns and togas that the ladies wore.

Very beautiful, and very visionary. Congrats!

How do you like Max's gesso board? I've only used the linen panels, but he's told me I really should try the gesso.

Mary, Kim, Allan, Mike and Jane, thanks so much for making my day!

Cindy, thanks also, and I was hoping somebody would ask me about this panel. It was just incredible to work on. I'm not obsessive/compulsive generally but I really got obsessive with this surface. The gesso is the most touchable surface I've ever worked on and the effects you can get with it are so interesting. One of the reasons I posted this yesterday was to get myself to stop painting on it and move on to other paintings.

I had a lot of trouble initially but I think if I had used softer brushes I would have solved some of my problems.

I don't usually say this after I post something here, but "this painting looks so much better in reality". The surface quality is a big part of its interest.

I would love to see somebody who starts with a grisalle paint on this. I think it would be perfect for them.

Linda,

I know that you experiment with these surfaces all the time. Assume you received an important commission tomorrow, say Bill Murray in that wet suit from "The life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," what surface would you choose?

What an unusual and lovely portrait Linda. I am a big fan of purple myself, so this is some good eye candy. Super!

Bill Murray.

No, no ...

Not body painting, not which surface of my hero Bill. Which traditional surface for painting would you choose?

Linda,

I feel a wave of DEEP resentment creeping over my erstwhile calm and saintly persona.

You get to paint a beautiful model AND a beautiful painting AND get paid for it.

After over a month of searching for a model, pay at now $15 per, 12-20 hours a week, flexible days, I WAS ready to call Club Balloons for a 'dancer', until I read they make $700 a night seducing a pole.

Really imaginative and gorgeous, Linda. The parents should be really overjoyed.

Oh, I was just messing with your head. I watch Groundhog Day every year on Groundhog Day, by the way, and it's coming up again.

Back to your question. Untraditional surfaces are a harder sell for clients and I always talk about what I'm going to paint on as a support with them. Sometimes they say they don't care and sometimes they do. Linen and gessoed boards are traditional surfaces but I'm not sure I would paint on a big gessoed panel for, say, a full portrait size or larger. Linen is a lot lighter in weight and the paint is for me anyway easier to move around.

I wouldn't use a gessoed or ABS panel for a plein air or alla prima painting, either, for the same reason. Those panels need a couple of coats of paint on them.

If I had a client with, say, skin that I really wanted to work on - a child or a beautiful woman - I would get a gessoed panel and really noodle around with layers and scumbling.

Heidi, thank you. And Sharon, thank you - you are so funny... !

Linda,

This is very very nice. I personally am thrilled each time I see another "traditional pose" presented in a very creative and untraditional way. That is my personal interpretation of a way to describe your painting. The tide in portraiture just may be changing.

Congratulations on a beautiful work,

Denise

Marvelous, simply marvelous!

:thumbsup:

Dang! Sorry to have been misleading, Sharon, this was done as a gift. I do tend to push for offbeat ideas, though. And thanks, Denise and Beth.

Linda,

I dont want to go off-topic in your Unveiling here - so move this somewhere ok? I just want to make sure you see this -

Can you tell me what if any the difference is between the realgesso panels and ABS for painting on? Because of all the hoopla I think I need to stop using the ABS, but I love the surface so much! I have 2 realgesso panels and just havent used them yet. Also - Ive had problems with glare with the ABS and was hoping the panels were better.

Thanks!
Kim

Gift Smift!
 

It still did not cost you model money AND it is still beautiful!

A wonderful piece, Linda, just perfect.
I think the outfit gives autonomy to the painting, so it is a picture as well as a portrait!
All the best
Ilaria

This painting continues to grow on me, it looks different each time I view it. Thank you for posting it.

Jean

Really lovely and creative, Linda! I particularly like the very warm rim of light coming into the shadow side of her face on the right. I'm thinking a lot about lighting these days. How did you create that effect?

I also like the idea of posing the subject in front of one of her family's other paintings. I might steal that idea for something I'm doing in the fall.

And I love the color scheme, and the hair wreath. Bravo!

Dear Linda,

Beautiful piece, of course! Apologies for wighing in so late - I love the color harmony and the gaze.

Congratulations!

I had to really think about this question. (I use Maroger which tends to make the surface shiny whatever ground I use.) The difference is a bit like the difference between good fake pearls and real pearls. They look the same but there is a very subtle difference in touch. When I put my hand on an ABS panel there is a subtle tactile difference, in temperature and ....hmm... can I say "responsiveness"? The gessoed board feels like a refridgerated hardboiled egg. The ABS feels like my computer mouse. I preferred the feel of the gessoed surface, but now that I think of it, I also really like hardboiled eggs.

Okay, you ask, does this make any difference? Well, one of the things I brood about when I paint (other than the usual "Why is there pain and suffering in the world?" and "Will an asteroid hit our planet?") is "To what extent does the process affect the final product?" One of my theories is that if you make the creative process better you make your product better. In other words, whatever helps you to immerse yourself in the creative process will keep you working more and will (hopefully) result in better technique and a better painting.

I think it's also a good idea to try out a new surface on a painting that's not an "important commission". I don't always follow this advice myself, though.

The rim lighting was an accident. The photo shoot setup was a high-placed artifical cool "north light" bulb and there was incidental incandescent coming in from the right. I decided to pump up the warmth in the shadow side to offset all the coolness in the background and the cool lit side.

I stole this idea of putting the subject in front of another painting from somebody else, of course, so go right ahead! :) I can't remember who, though. Sargent painted Isabella Stuart Gardner in front of that tapestry but it wasn't a huge success, was it. (And didn't Isabella's husband say of it, "It looks like hell, but it looks like you." ?)

Dear Linda,

This is beautiful. You have really nice color and compositional harmonies happening. I keep coming back for another look. Emma doesn't seem to mind me staring back at her!

Garth

What an interesting comment, Linda. Makes me want to run out and buy new brushes, at the very least!

Linda,

I missed this when first introduced. Beautiful. I recently took pictures of a girl wearing purple. I was a bit nervous about it, but I told her to wear whatever she wanted. You proved it works. BTW, if you had said this was you at 17, I'd believe it.

I have to second Jim's opinion there, Linda. She sure looks a lot like you! (at least based on your little avatar)

Linda -

Thank you for that info on the ABS vs. the gessoed board! This helps a lot.

Seeing that close up I am wowed by the freckles - those look great. I have never been able to get freckles to look so real.

Gosh, I was never this cute. Anyway, this girl is around twelve or thirteen, and this is approximately what I looked like at her age:
(Thanks again, everybody, for the nice comments on the painting!)

Party on, Garth! (Or was he Wayne?)

This is a really beautiful painting. I would love to see it "in person."

Well, shoot.... I looked away for a minute and you came up with this! I think it's fantastic. Maybe my favorite of yours so far.

Best--TE

<snip>

Linda,

If THIS is what you looked like at thirteen, all I can say is that I would have killed to have the honor of painting your portrait. How often time and fate consire to rob us of opportunity. It would have been a portfolio piece no one would have forgotten.

Linda, thanks for the close up - you even have those nostrils rolling back... good form! :)

Now stay away from that Wayne's World site!

I'm Not Worthy!
 

Most excellent painting, eh?

*ahem* Excuse me.

Seriously, Linda - this is wonderful stuff: A portrait, allegory, decorative and whimsical piece all rolled into one. And, it's just darned nice to look at.

Thanks for the tech info (didn't know you used Maroger) as well as the closeup. Process is important to the success of any portrait, so an inside look at a successful piece is always welcome.

I looked like Wayne at 13. Well, no - maybe more like the guy in the back seat of the Gremlin during "Bohemian Rhapsody" who says "I love you man!!" all the time.

I have been looking throu this forum for quite a while now. I think this has got to be my favorite painting. Good job