The Plasterers
 

Here's one of my latest portraits, of a father-son team of ornamental plasterers. I had approached them about a year ago, saying I would like to paint their portrait against a backdrop of old, mottled plaster, showing some kind of work they were doing. A few months ago the son called me and said he'd been thinking about the portrait, and they had a good setup for it, and to meet them the next day at their job. It was their last day on the job so I had to work fast. The painting shows an almost completed ornamental cornice behind them. Oil on linen, 66" x 40".

Oooh Alex, I like this!

It has such a sense of space and feeling of pride and the relationship between the father and son is tangible. Having just gone through some unplanned renovations at home, those buckets and tools and plaster splattered boards are just so familiar! Kudos to you!

Great job, Alex!

I love the "simple" approach to this piece. The pose, composition, color and propping really pull this painting to one theme. I particularly like the balance between the architecture and the looseness of the men.

Very nice work.

Alex,
I really like this painting! Did you do from life and finish in one day? Or took some pictures and finished it from the references?

Alex,

Wow! This is beautiful on so many levels. I love the perspective you have taken as the artist. I wonder if it was diffucult to decide exactly from which angle to paint (photograph) them? I love all the many colors in this portrait, it seems so alive, yet in many ways you have managed to keep this portrait simple. Wonderful!

Joan

Terri, John, Maria, Joan--thank you all! I've re-posted the photo of the whole portrait because I notied the shadow was much darker, browner and less transparent than it really is. Hopefully the new image is more accurate, though it's now last rather than first.

Maria, to answer your question, I wasn't as clear as I should have been when I said I had to "work fast." What I meant was I had about an hour and a half to get all the information before they finished the job, and they are not the type to pose idly between jobs. I only had time to do a few sketches and take photos. It was a gloomy day. The only light was from a light bulb in the ceiling, so I augmented that with a daylight spot as near to the bulb as I could get it. They actually were glad to have the extra light to work by. As they worked, I asked them to pause and do different things. When the job was finished I just prayed that I had captured what I wanted to capture! Usually I do a color sketch in oil but it was not possible in this case.

Joan, I had no choice of angles, since they were up on the scaffold. But I quickly decided this angle had wonderful dramatic possibilities.

Alex, thanks for the explanation.
I really like the composition!

I really love this! It's clearly a portrait, but with such flare and a real sense of the 'figurative' there as well. Your portraits tell a story and give us more information about the subjects than any traditional posing ever could. It's just wonderful.

Alex,
Bravo. This is beautiful and I love the subject matter and the composition. Very masculine and appealing!

To Save and to Learn
 

Alex, I really do love the drama, warmth, and strength that you have captured. Their eyes are so expressive and your brushwork just beautiful. Thank you for posting this. It is a painting from which to learn.

Dear Alex,

I second everyone's praise. It's a stunning painting and composition, and perhaps my favorite of yours (along with other favorites of yours). Kudos!

To all: I have recently seen this in her studio. The scale has real presense. It's big.

Garth

I also love the story-telling aspect of this, it's a perfect example of space and time. This might sound stupid, but it reminds me of that photo taken of the guys in the movie "The Untouchables". Proud men in the middle of their jobs posing for the camera.

In other words, great!

Alex,
wish that I could say like Garth !

This is a very fine portrait of both the skilled craftsmen as well as the scene.
You have solved the perspective issue brilliantly by showing the diagonal line along the sealing. This being the most dominant line in the painting and the center of interest and key to understanding the scene as well as the perspective of the room.
I also like your brushwork. As I understand, you paint without too much medium. Would you show us some very close ups of the brushwork :?
Allan

Alex, this is a stunning painting! Like Garth, I've seen this in person and it's just amazing. This "men at work" concept is so freshly painted and holds together so well from a viewing distance. It has real presence and it is (like Garth said) BIG.

What wonderful faces on the canvas, too. Very impressive all around, Alex!

Thank you, thank you, thank you--Kim, Pat, Carol, Garth, Jimmie, Allan, and Linda--for your very generous comments! You guys are terrific artists so your words mean a lot to me.

Allan, yes, it's true I don't use medium any more, and I feel I have a lot more control over my brushstrokes, plus I'm forced to use more paint which I needed! I'm posting some extreme closeups for you, and for anyone else who's interested.

Oh My ... The Hands!
 

Love the close ups...hands with plaster, eyes...everything. Thank you for sharing this with us. It sure got me.

Carol, thanks! Here are a few MORE closeups that I was going to post originally, then when Allan wanted the extreme closeups I thought it would be overkill, but here they are anyway.

Never Overkill!
 

Thanks for posting the close ups. Can't get enough of this!

I love the point of view and the way the shadows set up the space.
Great!

Hi Alex,
Congratulations on this great achievement.
I loved it.

Thanks, Tom! I'm not used to working with artificial lighting so at first the shadows were a bit startling. Then I began to like the way they were attached to the figures like cut-out shapes, kind of like the nursery rhyme, "I have a little shadow. . ." and I began to see them as a compositional asset. Not that I haven't painted shadows before, but these were so close and dark against the white wall, you know what I mean? I just couldn't fudge them or belittle them.

And Claudimir, thank you, too! I really appreciate your kind words.

This painting's got it all. Wow. Tongue-tied. Beautiful. Janet

Alex,
thanks so much for showing the close ups, now I really wanted to see this in person. I think that I am going to give this technique a try

Allan,

A demo might take a while, but for now I'll try to get a couple of photos of me mixing paints so you can get the idea. It's really not that luscious. I wish it were more luscious. I'm working in that direction. (While I'm painting I always feel it is luscious, but then I'm always amazed and frustrated at how thin it really is!) When I first started painting as a teenager I think I was highly influenced by my parents' negative attitude toward waste. You couldn't waste a good piece of paper if you only needed a scrap. You couldn't throw out a small bit of leftover food. I was in awe of the expensive oil paints and I used them sparingly, plus I figured out how to stretch them out with medium. You get the idea. Anyway, this habit is taking me a long time to break.

I've noticed that when I paint totally from life I put more paint down. It's just so much easier to see what should be emphasized. I'm working on how to transfer that to working with digital photos. I would guess that working from a monitor as you do would be pretty close.

On my first layers when I'm painting really loosely, I mix in some Gamsol. Most areas get about three layers, and by the time I'm up to the last layer, the darks have a little Gamsol mixed in because they are thinner, and the light areas are just paint mixed from the tubes. That way I get a nice soft edge, or crisper (but still soft) accents.

Alex

Dear Alex,

I have been watching this thread all week, but haven't had the chance until now to start putting down my response into words.

Beyond its original and spectacular execution, I find this painting to be heroic. Sort of a simple honest American worker and family version of the statue of Iwo Jima. Or Rosie the Riveter.

Lines form this old Nana Mouskouri song suddnely popped into my head- I haven't even heard thought of this song for twenty years!

"Sons of true love and sons of regret
All of their sons you cannot forget
Some built the roads, some wrote the poems
Some went to war, some never came home"

This painting belongs on the lobby wall of the US Department of Labor.

Alex, all I can do is echo what everyone else has already said (more eloquently than I ever could).

Bravo! I wish I had painted this. I wish I COULD paint this.

Chris has said, wordsmith that she is, what I couldn't when I saw this. The word I thought was iconic but it seemed wrong-she got it right with heroic. And the sons, fathers, brothers, husbands. Proud workers and craftsmen. That's it. Perfect.

Gosh, you guys, I am just totally overwhelmed by your comments!

Chris, to think that it reminds you of that song--those few words suggest so many emotions and images.

Chris and Janet, to say this painting is "heroic" makes me feel like a vessel though which something was expressed. It's kind of awesome. I feel you must be exaggerating. I KNOW you must be exaggerating!

Cindy, thank you so much for your incredibly generous words!

The father-son relationship in this painting is very special, I think. They tended to fall into the same position which seemed to describe the way they work in tandem. Both father and son are quiet men. The father is a highly skilled craftsman who impressed me right away 20-some years ago when he first did some plastering work for us. He had such an impressive work ethic and did everything with an artistic sensibility. His son started working for him when he was still a teenager and now does a lot of ornamental work while his father assists him, so I guess he is slowly taking over. I wanted to express this dynamic in the painting. The father and son look very different and act different in certain ways, but there seems to be this easy harmony when they work together that comes from the father understanding his role of bringing up a son and then encouraging him to become all he can be, even if he (the father) takes a back seat eventually. In a way, the father keeps his position of respect by doing this.

By the way, the son is also a visual artist (painter).

Alex,

I like so much about this, it would be easier to tell you what I don't like about this painting. I know this is the unveiling section, and not a place for anything negative but
I can't help but say I don't like that it isn't mine.

I really, really like the perspective.

Great portrait!!

You almost had me fooled, Janel! (I'm easily fooled, one of my more embarrassing traits.) Anyway, thanks so much for the "critique." The perspective was challenging. One of my worries was how to make the father look taller (which he is) although the sharp perspective angle, and the fact that he is behind his son, make him lower down in the composition. I ended up exaggerating his height slightly, and hoping that the angle of the cornice and the closeness of his shadow to the top of his head would give the right information to the viewer.

Once again I am dragging in late.

Wonderful Alex, this should do very well! This painting is certainly worth a 1000 photo's, so that would make it worth more than 10000 words!

Beth

Thank you, Beth, you are so nice to comment on this. Especially since I'm VERY anxious about the upcoming conference!

Alexandra,
It takes a true artist's eye to see a beautiful painting in the mundane workings of everyday life. This is smashing! You accomplished some difficult art tasks (like perspective) with a Master's touch. It is a great painting.

Thank you, Richard. I really appreciate your comments!

Beth, somehow I messed up your post. I thought I hit "reply" but I think it got edited instead, and then came up as my comments under your avatar! Then I couldn't get it back, so I deleted it. Sorry!

For anyone who is interested, Beth was saying some very nice things again, and warning me about Garth's wild special effects with photography.

Well, Beth, I cannot believe you don't enter these competitions!

As for Garth's photography, I figure since we have both posted our self-portraits everyone knows what we really look like, so if Garth decides to get psychodelic, we won't have to worry (too much).

Terrific job Alexandra - I love it's contemporary nobility .

Congratulations

Thank you, Linda! I think Wally has a flair for the dramatic and carried off the impression of nobility in his pose, so I didn't have to do much besides paint it.

Hope you enjoy your workshop with Jeremy Lipking. His paintings of rushing water are so exciting and beautiful. I was showing them to one of my students the other day because he's painting a waterfall.