Mattelson Workshop Painting

Patricia Joyce · 01-15-2009, 08:53 AM

Just returned from Marvin Mattelson's workshop in Atlanta. This is my third with Marvin and I had so many light bulb moments, heard things I never was able to absorb before. ( "Think shapes, not features" ) I'm pretty happy with some of the passages in this painting. Marvin is a consistantly generous, logical, excellent teacher. All the students in this class ranged from inexperienced to more experienced and there were many very nice portriats.
The unique feature to this model is that he had white eyelashes which cast a shadow, yet could not be seen themselves, very curious problem to solve. I apologize for a less than perfect image, perhaps Marvin can post the one he took for me in the class.

Thanks for looking.

Alexandra Tyng · 01-15-2009, 09:33 AM

Patty, this is beautiful! I think you solved the eyelash "problem" very well. It's all a matter of putting the right color in the right place. If you observe and record accurately, it is done and does not have to be overdone. But I'm not trying to tell you what you already know and have painted so brilliantly. I also admire how you have described the color and texture of his skin, eyebrows, lips, everything!

Patricia Joyce · 01-15-2009, 11:18 AM

Thank you Alexandra. The eye was particularly hard for me because of the preconcieved IDEA of what an eye is, i.e. eyelash line is usually dark. Sounds simple, but it really threw me off. I painted the eye five times!!

Thanks for the remarks on the color. I love the palette Marvin teaches. It is so easy to get beautiful color.

Claudemir Bonfim · 01-17-2009, 10:17 PM

Beautiful. what are the dimensions?

Patricia Joyce · 01-18-2009, 12:13 PM

Thanks, Claudemir. Actually the dimensions are 12 x 16 however I have cropped the image for viewing and because, being a workshop painting, I did not take the time to finish the shirt. My goal was to get as far as I could on the face.

Carol Norton · 01-18-2009, 01:44 PM

My goal was to get as far as I could on the face.[/QUOTE]

And what a great job you did on his face! Beautiful work! I love the way you worked the background into the shadows.

Marvin Mattelson · 01-18-2009, 02:44 PM

Hi Patty, here is a shot I took of your painting. The overhead lights have accentuated the canvas texture, but I think the color may be closer based on what I remember. Unfortunately I messed up the settings in my camera and shot these paintings as JPEGs instead of in Raw format and this severely handcuffed my ability to correct the color.

You did a fantastic job pulling your painting together on your last day. I wish you could have stayed longer but I know that you were able to clarify many issues and I'm very excited to see where you take your paintings from here on out.

I've also included several other examples of the other workshop participants' final results, since you left a couple days early. The paintings are by Mary Beth, Robert and Elizabeth. Everyone in the workshop made such great progress. Big difference in these portraits compared to when you last saw them.

Marvin Mattelson · 01-18-2009, 02:57 PM

I thought you'd also be interested to see how my demo turned out. As you know, the two models were married to each other. During one of their breaks, Robert looked through the narrow opening between the door and the jamb and saw that Susan had resumed posing. He rushed into the room only to discover that what he had actually seen was the painting on my easel and not his wife Susan. That was pretty funny.

Marvin Mattelson · 01-18-2009, 03:02 PM

Somehow your painting didn't upload the first time. I had to make it a tad smaller. Sorry!

Patricia Joyce · 01-18-2009, 03:18 PM

Yes, my classmates did very well in finishing up the last two days. I see such improvement and finish that I did not see when I left. It was a great class, we all had so much fun! Thank you Marvin, once again, for being my teacher!