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My family encouraged me, but they wanted me to go into teaching. They wouldn't pay for an art college, but that's what I wanted and I managed to get a full scholarship so they allowed it. The weirdest thing about my undergraduate education (this was a long time ago, but it still disturbs me) was that I was totally ignored by some male professors. They wouldn't critique my work. One told me it was a waste of his time since I was just going to get married and have babies. It was almost impossible for a female to be regarded seriously unless she acquired a well-known mentor.
I kept my studio alive, barely, and made money with other jobs. I learned to be content painting for myself.
After a life filled with the usual ~ craziness, love, and hard knocks ~ I decided to continue my art education. There are a lot of MFA programs out there today, but the top programs are expensive and harder to get into than Harvard Business school which accepts 10% of applicants. Highly rated MFA programs accept less than 7% of applicants, sometimes less than 4%. The whole enchilada was a revelation to me.
I wasn't accepted at first, it took two tries. I attended Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and found every kind of art is respected and figurative art is encouraged.
I feel it doesn't diminish portrait artists to learn that abstract expressionism was a response to the horrors of WWII, or surrealism began as a mining of the unconscious, or to become familiar with modern conceptual portraiture. Art is my love, so I want to know as much as possible. I consider painting similar to any other profession out there, having an evolving history, a specialized vocabulary, and an increasingly technical basis. I wouldn't begin to think I could understand physics without a knowledge of basic math, and art today, including some portraiture, has reached a similar level of complexity.
Now, is all that required to paint a wonderful painting/portrait? No.
Is it better to go the academic route than specialized portrait courses? I think it is just a different path to an end. We are artists because we engage in the practice of art. As we practice art, we learn what we need and where to obtain it.
Now, has it helped me ? Yes, being part of that community was/is wonderful. I try to maintain contact with many of the artists I met at school and we share information about exhibiting opportunities and commissions.
An artist follows his/her interests to continue to grow. I will try to share here - and, in turn, learn from you - the excellent portraitists who followed their own paths. It feels like completing a circle.
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