Four Siblings
 

Oil on Linen, 48" x 64"

Now that I've finally declared this officially finished and had it photographed, I feel ready to unveil it here. This has been a challenge in many ways, but extremely enjoyable, too. The siblings are aged 8, 6, 4 and 2.

Alex,
it's such a joy to watch, because there is so much going on and you have kept it all balanced.

I don't know where to begin, or end, if I should tell you what I like about this charming childrens portrait, I love everything about it.

To mention just one; the bluish reflection on the screen behind the sofa takes the whole thing to a different level, Sargent comes to mind.

Bravo Alex :thumbsup:

Alex,

I have always admired the way that you create such a beautiful sense of pictorial space and volume around your figures. You somehow overcome the tendency of a photo to flatten things out. And I love the expression of the little girl on the right. It seems so genuine.

It is a beautiful portrait!

Great, great, great ... what else could I say?!

Thank you, Allan, Mary, and Bonfim!

Creating the space around these children was so much fun and quite a lot of work because of the size. You've probably noticed from previous postings that I enjoy working big, but I don't often get the chance to paint families. This one is going to be a gift for the grandparents. Here are a couple more closeups.

This is soooo beautiful.

Smart family who commissioned that!

Compelling work Alex!
I know what a challenge it must have been to have 4 children posing ! And then to obtain a nice composition : you succeded beautifully !
I love how you cut the space behind the scene with the vertical lines of the black screen, (always something to learn about the composition with you...)
And the children are very lively.
Beautiful !

Alex, what a beautiful painting! I love everything about it....

Did you take seperate photos and arrange the kids as you saw fit for the painting? I would love to hear how you went about creating such a large multi sibling composition.

Ditto!
 

I, too, would love to know how you went about the construction of this beautiful painting.

Oh Alex, this is just so beautiful.
I love the skintones. Actually there's not a single thing in this work that I don't love.
Sargent's girls come to mind immediately, for the light and its direction, but it is also the isolation of the sitters that refers to that portrait.
I also particulalrly like the tilt of the carpet that projects the subject toward us and puts us right into that room: when I look at it I can feel my feet on that floor.


I always enjoy portraits that are theatrical: the kids are sitting that way to present themselves to the artist, the gestures are all because of the artist: the little girl would show her toy, the boy is performing his puppet show, the eldest is at ease, looking, the other boy maybe just wants to leave.
This work has nothing to do with a casual snapshot, there is a real tension here, a compelling work.

Thank you, Mary Ann, Marina, Enzie and Carol! I appreciate your staunch support and very nice comments!

The family lives in London, and we were going to England on a trip to visit our daughter who was studying at Cambridge for a semester. (In fact we met Ilaria at the Tate Britain during this trip.) Originally we were going to arrange things so I would have several days to visit them, sketch the children, and take photos, but we had a scheduling conflict. The day after our arrival in London, they were flying to the U.S.! So I had only about 3 hours to accomplish everything. The circumstances were less than ideal, but I managed to sketch them while they ate lunch, then set things up while they changed into their outfits.

Their mother helped out a lot before I arrived, by sending me photos of their living room from different angles. From the photos I identified the pieces of furniture I wanted to use: the couch, the chair, the folding screen, and the coffee table. The oriental rug worked very well. We moved the furniture around at right angles to the windows, so we could catch the natural light.

I took about 100 photos. If I had been able to come back the next day, I would have taken 100 more! But after a couple of hours the children were out of sorts. The usual variety of dynamics went on between them, plus they were just plain tired of posing. Normally I never attempt to capture children in a single photo session, but I had to.

When I got back home I studied all the photos, I was looking for these things:

1) The best poses and expressions of each child
2) How these poses might work together and provide interaction
3) A composition that would break up the boy/girl stereotypes (i.e. not having the girls watching while the boys played chess)
4) A composition that would not be boys on one side, girls on the other
5) Not all the children looking at the viewer
6) but avoiding too many looking away or down, which might have weakened one side of the composition
7) One or two children "inviting" the viewer into the painting
8) Different activities on different spatial planes that crossed over a bit.
9) Head sizes relatively similar, but still creating depth

Well, I could go on and on. Needless to say, it took some thought. I first made a sketch for the clients, then a photo-montage. When these were approved, I estimated the size and got that approved. The clients were wonderful during the whole process--helpful and not trying to impose their taste. Possibly their taste was similar to begin with (I had done a portrait of the children's grandfather about ten years ago), but I appreciated having their trust.

Oh, Ilaria! And to think we saw you the following day, and observed a few Sargents and many Hogarths! That may have influenced me. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm. It means a lot.

I forgot to answer the specific question about whether I took separate photos of each child. I got many group shots, which helped to document the space, though in the painting I corrected for photo distortion. (Garth helped advise me on this, and with other perspective issues, on a visit to my studio as I was struggling with the portrait.) I also took individual shots, and smaller group shots. They tended to wander in and out but I had the help of their mother and nanny, who kept getting them back in place while I snapped away. I find that the resolution on my digital images is good enough that I can use any photo of any one person and enlarge it to get all the detail I need--a huge advantage of digital photography.

Alex,

You mention the correction for some of the distortions of photography. This is what strikes me about your construction of space. It feels so natural. Could you go into a bit of detail about how you make this adjustment. It could be most instructive. Thanks.

Really wonderful painting, Alex. So beautifully and intelligently composed. I also think the lit panel on the blue screen behind the children is a perfect compositional element - beautiful in itself, and also brilliant at bringing the whole painting together. And such lovely brushwork. I am so pleased to have seen this today. (Congratulations, too, on your recent honour at the PSOA outdoor light competition. So well deserved!)

Thank you, Mary and Thomasin!

Mary, to answer you question about photographic distortion, I tried to correct for it while taking photos by standing as far back from the group as possible. I stood about 15 feet away and crouched down slightly so I was only a little above the taller children's heads (standing). I was trying to minimize the foreshortening of their lower bodies. Still, there was a problem of the children on the couch being quite a bit smaller than the children in front of the couch. I think this was due to the fact that I had to adjust my zoom lens to a wide angle to get everyone into the group shots. The distortion was lessened when I zoomed in to more like 55 mm (old-fashioned equivalent) and focused on one or two in the group. I played with printed copies of the figures, printed at different sizes, eyeballing what I thought looked right. Garth Herrick came over to my studio to see the progress and he thought I could go farther in minimizing the difference in size. (It always helps to have another artist's eye!) I just kept going until it looked right. I then made a photo-pastiche of the children at corrected sizes, and planned my composition and canvas size from that. I hope that explains my process.

Thomasin, glad you appreciate the panel on the screen. When the children's mother sent me pictures of their living room, I was immediately enthusiastic about using the screen as a background, but I didn't want to make the panels all dark (too flat) or completely alternating (too repetitive) Picking out one panel to catch more light seemed like a good solution, also drawing attention to the action in the center of the portrait. Thank you also for mentioning the recent PSA award!

Alex,

It sounds like you had your work cut out for you. You did a superb job given all the constraints. Thank you for explaining the process of how you developed the painting.

Alex--

THIS is a stunning painting...

as much for what isn't here as for what is.

My first reaction is that it blows most of children's portraiture since the Boit Children out of the water.

I appreciate your insight into the decision making process too.

You are welcome, Enzie.

Tom--thank you :D ! I appreciate your feelings very much. BTW, your portraits of children are among my favorites, possibly for some of the same reasons.

Alex,

Nice work!
Was nice to see you again at the Mancini show!
Best
Tony

Dear Alex,

I am totally bowled over by this painting - it really merits so much study, and I feel that I need to go back to it many times over.

It's as complex and successful a composition as I've seen, not only pictorially, but in its narrative. There is a lively dynamic among the children, yet each child's image could stand alone as a successful portrait. I think this is VERY rare to see.

I think it is even harder to DO. There is a lot to be said for sustaining your artistic/emotional/visceral stamina throughout such a piece. You have stayed fresh through every hour (and I am sure there must have been many) without losing focus.

Thank you for posting all. It is such a pleasure to see your work.

I agree with everything that's been said, and I especially agree with every word of Chris' post. Sorry for being so unoriginal, but this is an exceptional painting. Bravo!

David

My, my...what is this??!! What a beautiful piece of work! Your ability to convey a specific carved out space with the figures IN that space is amazing! And the figures are so alive, each one a world of its own. Such an honor to see this here... makes me want to see it in person.
VERY nice!

Tony, Chris, Sharon, David, and Carlos-thanks so much!

Tony, it was nice to see you, too, at the Mancini show. That was a fun day and a wonderful show.

Chris, how can I tell you how much I appreciate what you say? I was really inspired and energized by this opportunity to paint a family group. Maybe if I had to do ten in a year it might be harder to maintain the stamina!

Sharon, the Hogarth show was at the Tate. Although I planned this and had the photo session before seeing the Hogarth exhibit, I do remember being struck particularly by The Graham Children, and thinking to myself, "Now THAT's the kind of thing I want to aim for!" See below.

David, don't worry about being unoriginal It gives me a chance to appreciate the same words over again. :)

Carlos, you are very generous! I consider your compositions of figures in spaces to be masterful, convincing, and beautifully composed.

Thank you so much Alex. I have been having trouble with creating convincing space using reference photos. I am not knowledgeable enough in photography to know how to correct them. You have given me a clear place to begin.

Sharon, thanks again! That Hogarth is so inspiring in person. The children really feel alive and the whole portrait does have a delightful feeling about it.

Mary, you are welcome. I actually don't think you need much knowledge of photography, just a good eye and a lot of intuition about what looks right. Even then it helps to have a second or third (artist's) opinion. I am including some sketches I made, not real sketches of the actual children, but conceptual sketches that I did while playing with different ideas for the composition. Also, here is the photo-montage I made. I printed different sized figures (of the closer children) and cut them out, then tried each one to see which size looked right against the background of the children on the couch. I'm not an expert with Photoshop, and I prefer doing this than layering images and making my reference look perfect. I would rather keep the idea in my head an have all the bits of information separate. I hope this helps a little bit.

Alex, I am speechless on this one: what a remarkable, vigorous and beautifully crafted painting! The paint handling manages to be fresh and sensitive at the same time. I love the interchange between the siblings here and the way you have arranged them in this space. Anyone who has struggled with multiple children in a painting should save this one in a special file.

Such a strongly designed, intelligent piece - and another one of yours that I wish I had painted. This one is a real treasure.

Thank you, Linda!"Struggling" is the word. I find that, in these group portraits, it's not good to have too clear an idea of what you want to do beforehand in case the subjects don't fit the idea. On the other hand, when you leave things slightly up in the air, you never know if you have enough information or the right kind of information to make all the parts work together.

In this case I couldn't go back on a second day, but I think it's important for artists to throw away the notion that it is "unprofessional" to keep reworking a painting or taking more reference shots or changing your mind until you are satisfied.

Alex,
This is truly an amazing portrait. I keep going back to it and see new things each time. Thank you for sharing your whole process including that list of things to look for. I have printed it out for future reference. I am so taken with the casualness of the painting as though we have just happened by chance on this moment. . Along with the careful planning of the composition, the icing on the cake is the wonderful execution with those marvelous brushstrokes. The whole painting is very fresh and alive.

Cynthia

Well you certainly rose to the "challenge"! This took my breath away when I clicked on it. I think I gasped out loud.I LOVE candid paintings like this and would give anything if that was of my children hanging on my wall!

Thank you, Cynthia and Mary, for your very nice comments! I am glad you feel it is "casual" and "candid" as if the viewer happened to come upon the children playing. I wanted there to be a connection between the children and the observer, as if the viewer just walked in and the children were reacting spontaneously. It's good to know this comes across.