Anne Griswold Tyng
 

Many of you have already seen this in the making in the WIP section, but here it is in its finished state. The subject is my mother, an architect, who just recently celebrated her 86th birthday.

She is reaching up to steady a hanging tensegrity model made of four triangles held together by the tension of the string connecting all the points and forming an icosahedron. It's one of her many geometric discoveries. The models below show different stages of construction of her "Four-Poster" house. The house is entirely a space frame with living spaces created by the structure. In the background is the faint drawing of a city tower she designed with my father back in the 1950s. It was an idea that was never built. I tried to keep the portrait simple but still show some of her major designs and explorations.

I asked her to wear the Chinese jacket because she was born in China and spent part of her childhood there.

The portrait is the second of three portraits destined for the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hi Alex,
I, too, wish that we shared neighborhood. I would look over your shoulder most of the time.
Fantastic value scheme and beautiful textures all over. The light on your mothers head is just right, it is perfectly balanced with the dark background.

Wow.
 

That's great! I loved it.

Beautiful, Alex.

Yay! I have been in anticipation of this unveiling for some time. It looks great, Alex! :thumbsup:

Could you please post a close up of a part of the jacket?

Thanks, everyone!

Allan, yes, it is too bad Denmark is so far from Philadelphia USA.! It is so much fun to pop in on people and see what they are working on in their studios. I like it, too, when other artists visit me. Someday I'm going to see your work in person.

Bonfim, thank you! You are always there to be supportive and I really appreciate it.

Wow, Cynthia, I rarely hear from you in this section. I'll take it as a good sign.

Hi, Lacey, thanks so much. Sorry about the delay in posting this. I'll post some closeups tomorrow.

Alex,

I looked up those big words and I thought my head was going to explodrahedron.

That's one fine painting, I bet you're mum is real proud of you.

:D I can just picture all those tetrahedrons and octohedrons erupting from your skull! It's exactly how I feel when my mother starts talking about her theories. At least she knows what she is talking about!

Alex, she looks like a little woman who could be holding the whole globe rather then a balsa shape, so positive and assertive.
My feeling is also that you had to hold back your mother/daughter relationship in order to paint her in this more official and formal situation.
In a sense I see more ease in the couple of architects you painted lately. I tried to paint my mother last year, but I found it difficult even to look her straight in the eyes.
Anyway this is a very complex and elaborated work which shows off all your skill.
Beautiful
Ilaria

Thank you, Ilaria!

Definitely true. I am glad this came across.

That is so true, also! I think you are right, that I made her more formal than the other architects, and it could be also that I have already painted her in a more "motherly" pose, so I was deliberately contrasting this with the other portrait. There is that dignified persona she presents professionally that is so "her." I did see the Venturis as more relaxed and informal, in a way. Maybe I did have to separate myself from her (as mother/daughter) in order to paint her this way. The expression in the other portrait tugs at me every time I look at it, and I always lean it against the wall in my studio and cover it with another painting. What does that say? Too much emotion? So I empathize with your not being able to look your mother in the eye.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the jacket.

Wonderful! And I wish I owned a jacket like that.

Alex -

Great painting! That fabric texture is wonderful, too. The composition is unique as well. Wow, wow wow.....I know when I come to one of your unveilings, I am in for a treat.

Congratulations, Alex. Another winner.

Michele, Julie, and John--thank you!

I have to agree that the jacket fabric is beautiful. To get just the right colors I hung it up behind the easel as I was painting. I discovered that the shine of the threads in the pattern was in a different angle to the light source than the shine of the silk body of the jacket. It was fascinating but extremely complex. Every time I start a new painting there is so much to learn!

Alex, such a complex and satisfying painting to look at! There is so much there, that I forget to even view it as a painting. You've told a story and written a book and brought her to life all at the same time. This I like. :sunnysmil

Jean

Wow, Jean, to think you forgot it was a painting! Thanks for all you said. I try to do these things, and it's nice to know you feel I did. It kind of balances things out since I am rarely satified with my own efforts.

Allan, you will just have to visit!

Dear Alex, As you know, I just saw this during my last studio visit at your place. She is wonderful, and her personality sparkles through so effectively! I'd know her instantly in a crowd.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Garth

Please forgive my tardiness, I love this painting. I wish I were your cousin. You have color and design and textural excitement going on here.

Alex, I always learn from you and I appreciate it.

Beautiful! I'm hoping you'll say something about your compositional decisions - those "pointing" contrasts of geometrical design on the subtle background chalkboard and the 3-d model must have been great fun to design.

Garth, thank you so much. I agree, we have to get Allan over here for a visit! Also, I'm embarrassed because I never asked you how the Union League portrait delivery went. I'll check to see if you posted anything.

Chris, you are so nice to say these things! We can be honorary cousins in art. I learn just as much from you, believe me!

Mari, thank you, too! I really like your use of the word blackboard to describe the background. That really is the effect I wanted. I was thinking of concepts not (yet) realized, and of drawing boards, but I really was aiming for a kind of chalk-on-board effect.

The interplay of 3-d model and background was a lot of fun. It was really trial and error. I had a really definite picture in my mind of the hanging model and how much of it I wanted to include in the painting. I wanted the portrait to go up much higher than the top of my mother's head to emphasize her small size and the large scale of her ideas.

I had an elevation drawing of the city tower and two or three photos of the tower model. I liked the idea of challenging myself to draw the tower model in perspective and still make it look "flat" compared to the actual 3-d hanging model! In the portrait, the viewer's eye level is a little above my mother's head. I chose the photo of the tower whose perspective angle would correspond to the perspective of the rest of the painting when drawn at a certain size, i.e., viewing the middle of the tower straight-on, looking up at the top and down at the base. ( I had to sketch it in several times before I got it the right size. I wanted the base of the tower model to be a continuation of the floor plane, but transitioning from real to conceptual at a nebulous point. These were my intended goals and I hope I accomplished them to some extent. I hope my explanation makes sense. If not, looking at the WIP might shed a little light on this. Anyway, it was fun to do but I had a few nervewracking times when I wiped the whole background out and wasn't sure it was going to work.

Intelligent portrait
 

Such an intelligent portrait. Thank you.

sarah

Sarah, I don't believe we've "met" here on the forum before. It's nice to see you posting. Thanks so much for your comment! I really enjoyed looking at your work (on your website). Nice expressive brushstrokes and appealing use of color.

Hi you,
both of you, it would really make my day to come visit you and see your works in the making. I would love to shake hands with you because your enthusiasm and talent inspire my days. I want to be one of you ;)

Around here, in Denmark, I see very little that scares me in respect of competition. You, in America, have already build up a new tradition of realistic portraiture.

If tradition is "business as usual" I think that I will arrange my own ambuscade and await the trend being washed up on the shore of Denmark. I'll be ready, thanks to your inspiration.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin's fee; And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again; I'll follow it.

Horatio - What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness?
think of it; The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain That looks so many fathoms to the sea And hears it roar beneath.

Hamlet - It waves me still. Go on, I'll follow thee.

Marcellus - You shall not go, my lord.
Hamlet -. Hold off your hands!
Horatio - Be rul'd; you shall not go.

Hamlet - My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen,
By heaven! I'll make a ghost of him that lets me: I say, away!
Go on, I'll follow thee.

Horatio - He waxes desperate with imagination.
Marcellus - Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
Horatio - Have after. To what issue will this come?

Marcellus - Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Horatio - Heaven will direct it.
Marcellus - Nay, let's follow him.

Alex: Methinks no danger of madness lies in Allan, if his soul tempt him toward the flood, or the dreadful summit of the cliff. If 'tis true that something is rotten in the State of Denmark, by Heaven, let him take full advantage of this state.

Mike - I too (Methinks), do wax in a state of agreement, desperately.

:D Mike!
It's funny, this made me think of hurricanes rather than Shakespeare. I think you are getting one of our storms now.

Alex, this is so sensitively done, and is imbued with a sense of the sitter's intelligence. The geometric forms, though beautiful and purposeful, must have been a pain in the posterior-o-hedron to render, if you get my drift. Very diligent of you.

The icosohedron reminds me a little of the Hoberman Sphere. Then again, I am so mathematically challenged, I wouldn't know isoscoles from Sophocles. :D

Thank you, Rob!

Well, I know the difference between icoceles and Sophocles, but I never heard of a Hoberman sphere! I guess a trip to the dictionary is in order.

The geometric forms were time-consuming. There were a lot of adjustments along the way. I'd say the only part that really drove me crazy was painting the models on the floor. Getting the perspective, the angles of the stands, the relative size and distance as they went back in space was pretty exhausting! Once all that was correct, then I addressed the problem of how to suggest the forms in paint without putting in too much detail, and how to reduce the amount of detail, lower the values, etc., as they went back in space.

P.S. Math was my worst subject. I wonder how many artists are really good at math.

Great to see it finished...it's beautiful and RICH! Terrifically well-conceived and intriguing conceptually too.

Thanks for the inspiration--TE

Thank you so much, Tom! You say such nice things and I feel undeserving. Truthfully, parts of it were planned out, but the background was not all that well conceived when I first started. Sometimes I just can't come to a decision about certain parts of a painting until I see the rest emerging--then I know what it needs.

Update
 

Just wanted to let you know that this portrait will be on display at the Yale Art Gallery from Dec. 8 on through the re-opening celebrations and events. I'm not sure how long that will be--maybe a week, or maybe several weeks. So if you are in New Haven, please stop in if you can. The gallery, which was designed by my parents in 1951-55, has been completely restored, so it might be interesting to see the building, too.