|
I'm flat out of famous quotes, Patricia, but in preparing a "sales pitch" for portraiture by a living, breathing artist, I'd visit these points:
1. Permanence: oil paintings have a track record for durability which goes back over 500 years. Many concerned with the permanence of archival items have warned that with the demise of silver compounds as the substance in photographic images, prints commonly in use today, being impermanent dyes, will have very poor longevity. The transience of magnetic media is also under scrutiny as a long-term permanent record.
2. Portrait painting has endured (even flourished!) in the past 170 years since the invention of photography. It's because of the "composite" nature of images which result from the inevitable relationship that develops between artist and sitter. Images which result from such an intense psychological and physical observation are certain to be much truer representations of the complete persona of a subject than mere patterns of light, shade and color reproduced by mechanical means can ever be.
Go team !! (insert pom-pom girl smilie here)
|