Glowing Innocence

[Patrick Taylor]

Greetings,
I have not posted for some time now, my apologies. Due to injuries, and chronic pain I fell into a slump. Unmotivated, the lack of energy to "go to the easel", I felt as if my creative, right brain had shut down. With time..."the healer of all wounds," I felt the great need to get back to that which gave me the greatest satisfaction and mental rehab....Painting. After feeling a sense of creative rejuvenation I dove into this small 8" x 10" portrait of this beautiful child.

Once, at a school teachers home, I saw this incredible picture with the kind of dramatic, chiaroscuro lighting that I look for in both portraiture and still life. I asked the mother if i could have her permission to paint her child, to which, she agreed.

The original photo had a portion of the mothers arm in the image but I cropped in to just get the face of the baby. After blocking in the shadow areas with umber, I painted the entire background dark. When I came back to it the next day I remembered seeing paintings of some living masters; David Leffel, Daniel Greene etc., In their portraiture, they would leave the outer edges of the painting unfinished. Allowing the eye to fill in the rest and drawing the focus to the center of interest, that being the portrait itself. So, with this on my mind, I took a palette knife and scraped off the background color just up to the face line. Then, I painted back in the background, only this time, leaving the top unfinished. I neutralized the background by adding some ochre to set it back and allowing the warm skin tones to pull forward. The unfinished top served two purposes; 1) It helped to draw the eye down to the face instead of wandering off the painting, 2) It provided the illusion of a light source from above.

This painting was finished during the onset of hurricane Katrina. When i presented the painting to the mother, at her school, she broke into tears saying..."Thats my precious baby." She said that she had been so torn inside from the devastation in the south and seeing the hungry children in the news that she wished there was something she could do. I told her that the money she paid for the painting, I would donate to the relief funds in both hers and my name, this way, we both will have contributed something to help.

Thank you for listening to this special story, one of hope and realization that we as artists have been given gifts, not only for our own gain but mainly, to bring joy to others both through our images and or giving.

I hope this painting can bring a sense of joy and hope to you also.

8" x 10" Oil on Board

Painted from photo with permission from the parents.

[Patricia Joyce]

Wow, that is one intense painting. And I really like it. Your rendering of all edges is so beautiful. Glad you are feeling better and back to painting. Looking forward to seeing more of your heartfelt work.

[Patrick Taylor]

Patricia, Thank you for your comment. I have been browsing through all the many topics and threads in the forum and come across your comments, critiques and valuable information. I gain a great deal of inspiration from all the talent here. What a great resource to us all.

Thanks again, this was a fun painting and went so smoothly, to which I'm greatful, having been away from it for awhile. It is so rewarding to be back with "brush in hand."

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Patricia Joyce

Wow, that is one intense painting.

Yes, I'm with Pat on this painting!

I'm really captivated by the soulfulness of the painting, especially when the subject is a mere infant. The juxtaposition of deep character with innocence is really amazing.

I can see a stronger intensity in future paintings if more height size was given for the negative space - I'm relating this feeling to the image of the movie poster "Daylight". I'm waiting to see more paintings from you!

marcus

[Patrick Taylor]

Marcus, I appreciate you taking the time to comment and yes...in my work, I do paint with alot of intensity, emotion and feeling. You are right in that this painting would have displayed a higher level of depth and character if there were more negative space to further draw the view into the painting. Composition is so important in creating that masterful piece of work. I look at this childs face and I am amazed that my hand and heart actually painted it, yet, I realize that I have so much to learn. I read from a master that, "When one gets to the point in their work that they stop learning...they may as well put down the brush and quit." With each painting comes new knowledge and experience. Each painting is a study which raises our level of understanding of the painting process, taking that new found experience and knowledge into the next painting thereby growing and developing as an artist. Your comments and all the comments, and critiques recieved, help to shed light and make me aware of those areas that can be improved upon. Thank you for viewing and your kind words. Yes...more works to follow!!

[Cindy Procious]

Originally Posted by Patrick Taylor

Your comments and all the comments, and critiques recieved, help to shed light and make me aware of those areas that can be improved upon.

Patrick, you didn't post your painting in a critique forum. Instead, you posted in the unveilings forum - there are no crits allowed in here.

If you want constructive criticism about your painting, put it in here.

[Chris Saper]

At Patrick's request, I have moved his thread to this area for critique.

Patrick, I will post some comments in the next number of days.

[Cindy Procious]

Patrick, do you have permission to post the reference photo?

I can't say without seeing it, for sure, but I think you have anatomy/drawing issues that would benefit from being addressed.