Angie demo
 

This was a change of pace for me, and a very enjoyable one--painting from life without a net.

It's a demo I painted in a workshop I taught about a year ago. I didn't post it in Open Studio, as it was painted over the course of four days, in sessions of an hour more or less, first thing each morning.

The model was Angie, a local sculptor's wife. She was amazing. She had practiced meditation, and once she settled into the pose after breaks she'd become completely still and wouldn't move AT ALL, until the next break. But she appeared totally relaxed at the same time--I don't think a bomb going off would have fazed her.

Needless to say I was enamored, and would love to paint her again.

See you guys Thursday in Dallas. I'm really looking forward to it!

Tom, I'm so thrilled to see this! It has a completely different feel from your commissioned work and, as such, offers a fascinating glimpse of you, the artist, as well as the model. There's that strong repeated line in the shirt neckline, the jaw and even her lower lip. The look in her eye says volumes about something, I'm not sure what, but whatever it is it keeps me staring at it trying to figure out.

Don't you just love the chance to work from life?

I always find (at this point) that my likeness is less but my spontaneity is so much more. Do you feel the same?

Thanks, guys.

What I like about this process is that you can be interested in other things besides likeness, though in this case the likeness is there also. I asked myself what I was interested in apart from her personality, in a pure aesthetic sense, and found that it was the double pools of light on her head and chest, separated by the shadow across her (impossibly slender) neck. It made for some very interesting shapes.

I heard Burt Silverman once counsel that you need to have an artistic life apart from your commissions, and I want to make more opportunities for this type of exploration.

Best--TE

Tom,

She has real presence and power. You can feel her inner life.

A beautiful piece, thank you for posting it.

Tom, this is really a very lovely head! So, tell us more about your process - did you wait for the paint to dry before starting again the next day, or was it all wet into wet?

Did you use a medium? How, in terms of process, did this differ from your photo work? Did you do a detailed drawing first (starting with line) or shadow forms?

Sharon--this response means a lot...!

Linda--

Thanks so much...I just picked up the brush on day one and started painting. No preliminary drawing, but a quick, rough "map" of major features and outside contour with thinned down paint. Then painting largest shapes first, and then to more specific, smaller shapes. General to specific, refining the drawing with each pass through. You've seen it--and done it--a million times. The likeness is a tightrope walk, as you know. You either get it solid and quickly, or it falls apart--not many times in between.

No medium other than whatever mineral spirits stayed in the brush--mostly paint straight out of the tube (I have a bad habit of painting mostly with just a couple of brushes, and cleaning as I go. I don't use a bunch because it confuses me. I'd get cleaner color if I didn't do this.)

It would be wet in wet during each session, and the next day that would have "set" somewhat, but I made no attempt to slow the paint down or speed it up with a medium. I refreshed paint if it dried on the palette, and MAYBE a drop of oil on the piles of the colors that had stiffened on subsequent days. My goal with these is to get it with a minimum of fuss, in contrast to my anal approach with commissioned work. I love it--it's like skating.

You'd have done it in half the time or less.

Maybe, but I 'd have taken twice the time or more. I so agree that having the chance to do these life studies is a LOT more fun.