Boy in blue polo
 

I painted this portrait as a gift for our best friends here in London. He sneaked to my house on Sunday afternoon and sat for me for one and a half hour after lunch and forty more minutes around six o'clock.

I must say that it is the first time that a paint a portrait in my tiny sudio (I normally go on location) and found it much easier and relaxing. It's so nice when the model leaves and you can work a little longer with the image still in your eyes.

I am very satisfied with this work because I really did "my thing", and it is much more akeen to my still life paintings and to what I do in art class than to my commissioned work.
I included marks drawn with a rigger and I left canvas areas visible, and I just stopped when I thought I had said enough.
14"x16" oil on linen, a larger image here
Ilaria

PS This napoleonic hair style appearantly is the cool one to have, couldn't help reproducing it as it is.

Brav

Wonderful Painting!
 

Absolutely Love It!!!

Ilaria! You blow me away! It is just wonderful--beautifully painted, so immediate, full of the spontaneous joy of creation and yet not sacrificing accuracy. This is very hard to do.

But the best thing about it is the way all these factors come together to say what you want to say. My focus ends up on the boy rather than on your technique, etc. Like a great book or a piece of music played very well, it makes me stop thinking about who painted it and how, and the power of the work of art takes over.

Oh how I wish I had the words to describe how I feel when I look at your painting. It is beautiful and done so masterly bold and fresh. I can't help but feel every color and every stroke just flowed effortlessly on the canvas.

Beautiful, Ilaria!

Thank you so much to each one of you for your compliments and support, they mean a lot to me.
Sharon, painting from life is exciting and terrifying! (and...it was London white sky western light)

This time I made my life simpler by having this boy coming at my studio ( I mean the landing which I pompously call my studio) which I had tried to empty and tidy up.
This preparation time has helped me to calm down and concentrate before starting. In the previous hours I had also painted some colour swatches from Euan Uglow's book ( a must have) and vowed to keep close to his tonal range.

More and more I try to think about what happens on the surface of the painting in an abstract way. The lines are there to remind the viewer that this is not the illusory reproduction of a head but just paint on a flat surface.
I have also tried to work on the luminosity because I think that this is so much a quality of a child's skin.
I attach a close up, my painting application is joyfully becoming sloppy and raw.
I will have to paint this boy's brothers in the next weeks and I hope I will do well too !

Sharon, there's many of us out there !
Not that I have given up on my camera completely, although I try my best to paint commission live it is not always possible. It just feels more right to me. I do a lot of still life anyway which compensates any possible portrait from photo.

I too have a light blocking system in my studio which has huge windows on all sides: I stuck velcro on the sides of the windows and I have black fabric panels with velcro, I can close as much as I like, it's an easy and unexpensive solution.

Lovely lovely portrait Ilaria. Your description of form using colour and directional brushstrokes is impressive - in fact if my knees weren

Peter, thank you, I am embarrassed !

I paint very much "English School" : I read you like Coldstream, he is like painting grandpa for me.
I try to include marks that are more akin to drawing that painting, and I want to avoid creating the illusion of reality, but keep the event happening ON the canvas.

I am almost done with the brothers of this young guy and will soon post the result.

You certainly should not be embarrassed since the praise is fully justified.

Yes I have been strongly influenced by Coldstream via my tutor on my Foundation course but I have other influences as well including, Cezanne (les grandes baigneurs in the National Gallery is one of my favourite paintings), Giacometti, Klimt, Schiele and Stanley Spencer. Keep up the excellent work Ilaria.

Ilaria,

Somehow I missed this hauntingly beautiful portrait. There is such a delicacy about the treatment, that I will have to come back and further study it as well. Really, really wonderful!

I too love the freshness of this Llaria. Although I know it isn't, you make it look so easy with every precisely placed brush stroke. A real pro you are.

Dear Ilaria,

I am weighing in late, with apologies, but also with warm congratulations on a lovely, fresh and sculptural piece. Thanks so much for sharing.

Thank you so much for your support. Just yesterday I have finished the brothers of this kid, but I brought them to the framer still wet before taking a picture, so I can't post the images yet.
I hope they won't disappoint you

Lovely painting, Ilaria. I am looking forward to seeing the others to come.

So here they are, all three are the same size, I included a framed photo as I think the frames help to set the tone to contemporary.
The youngest child is only 5, he came to sit but was very fiddly. I took a photo and went on from this reference, then had him come once more. His portrait looks alright alone but compared to the other two is a little overworked. It is difficult to stop early when working from reference, and I found it harder to pin him down.
All in all I am very pleased and I think I am making good progresses !

Well done Ilaria. I agree you are making progress. I love the visibility of the drawing lines and the almost watercolour delicacy of the paint.

Ilaria,
I like those a lot, your high key values and the greyed down colors are very successful. I believe that the pictures present them self splendidly on the wall because light paintings are not so depending on the present light.

Your compositions are elegant as always, the symmetrical placement with a little angling of the shoulder and head does to the drawing what the more saturated color spots does to the color.
English is not my first language, but "noble" comes to my mind.

Ilaria, I am admiring the way you pick out shapes of color, and the colors you see, and the strokes with which you lay them down. It strikes me how differently everyone sees color. Value seems pretty easy to agree on, but color is so personal, and so are brushstrokes--like handwriting.

I'm enjoying these so much! Together they are a wonderful trio of paintings.

IIaria,

I really enjoy looking at these, you've captured so much in their thoughtful expressions. The way you've painted them, they are so fresh, they almost appear to be done in watercolor. Very nice!

Ilaria,

These are beyond wonderful and delightful to study. What a successful and fresh trio. Everyone's praise of these is so well deserved! I too love the thoughtful, harmonious poses. Bravo!

Garth

I agree with everyone, these are really something! I live in the southern US and it's hard to find a market for a more contemporary style, and also to find people willing to sit! I really love these.

Cecelia
www.ceceliacox.com

I really apologize to everyone for not thanking you for your very kind words until now.
I have been away for most of the summer and was able to go online only to reply to emails.
My laptop died suddenly just the day before I left and I am still waiting for its replacement which will happen next week.
From then on I promise a forum frenzy, I missed my time here !
Ilaria