Andrea, demo

Peggy Baumgaertner · 07-29-2002, 05:13 PM

Several of my students asked me to post this and the other two demos I painted during the three oil portrait workshops I held in La Crosse this summer. I painted this 24 x 20 oil demo of Andrea during the June 8-14 workshop. I worked on it for a total of five hours, broken into three sessions.

Peggy

Peggy Baumgaertner · 07-29-2002, 06:07 PM

Andrea, demo

Denise Hall · 07-30-2002, 10:21 PM

Hello all,

As a recent "graduate" of Peggy's last workshop in beautiful La Crosse, Wisconsin, where the humidity is not what it is here in beautiful sweltering North Carolina, I can tell you this portrait has amazing depth, beautiful rich color and it glows from within.

The portrait demos of Andrea and Patti were done in previous workshops this summer. The workshop I attended was last week (July 19-27). The model, Andrea, stopped by to speak with Peggy while we were painting our model and it is the spitting image of her. I only saw her for a few minutes and know this. This is your gift, Peggy. The likeness is truly wonderful!

But I also know now, after attending your workshop, that this doesn't happen by accidental experimentation. Planning, measuring from the model and hard work is also involved. I now have the same tools to use when I paint a portrait. I actually have a notebook full of tools and tips from my observations in your class!

I am so impressed with your knowledge, your enthusiasm to share your knowledge with your students (working way past quitting time, too!), and your ability to effectively help us to understand and put the knowledge into practice sucessfully. Hey, I sound like an advertisement, but I mean every word.

It may take me a little longer than 5 hours to come up with something similar to your portrait of Andrea or Patti (or John and Morgan), but I now feel like it is possible. ( Well, I think so...)

Thank you for posting this, Peggy and the jpeg really doesn't do it justice - of course everything seems to flatten out some. Since I have seen it - I should know!!

Beautiful work! An inspiration for us all to strive for our personal best with each portrait.

Debra Norton · 07-30-2002, 11:52 PM

Peggy,

Thanks for posting! I've been waiting for this one.

I attended the workshop where Peggy painted this portrait - got to watch it from start to (almost) finish. (The color on my screen doesn't do it justice, from what I remember.) If any of you get the chance to take one of Peggy's workshops - go for it! It will be time and money well spent. You'll have fun too.

Debra

Peggy Baumgaertner · 08-02-2002, 09:04 AM

Denise and Debra,

Thanks for your kind words! After spending so much of my time alone in a studio, it is my extreme pleasure to have a class full of enthusiastic, witty, intelligent ARTISTS! I really miss you guys. The class was seething with ideas, revelations, inner confrontations, and just plain hard work.

Denise, I will be posting the painting of John after I have a chance to photograph it this weekend. We ran into a snag when I used an accelerant to decrease the drying time so I could finish John the next day. (Then decide to start a different painting).

When I got back to work on John's portrait later in the week, painting in the hour and a half before class started, the accelerant made the paint bone dry every morning. So in the morning I would completely repaint the canvas with nice juicy paint, and when it would just start to get interesting, I'd have to quit. (In my usual way of painting, the paint would be wet on the canvas for four or five days). On Saturday morning I finally had enough time to repaint and finish John up.

Debra went directly from my workshop to check out the Ateliers in the Minnesota and Ontario region, and settled on THE ATELIER, a wonderful school in Minneapolis created by Richard Lack alumni, Cid Wicker and Dale Redpath.

...and I am back in my studio, fighting the good fight.

Thanks for posting! And let me know how you are doing.

Peggy

Rochelle Brown · 08-02-2002, 02:47 PM

Some painters can create a masterpiece in a short amount of time. The hair, skin and expression are so life-like. In five hours my painting would look like an abstract "Bride of Frankenstein."

Denise Racine · 09-21-2002, 01:52 PM

I was lucky enough to be with Peggy, in Wisconsin while she created this beautiful portrait. It was a real treat to see Peggy's painting process. The painting passed from a rough drawing to become little "squiggles" of color, then evolved to be a resemblance to Andrea's mother, and finally emerged as Andrea herself!

Good work Peggy & thanks for a great workshop!

Sharon Knettell · 10-09-2002, 09:29 AM

Peggy, I would be too embarassed to tell you how long it takes me to do a head . If I had a workshop, after 5 hours I would still be dithering about where to put the chin. Beautiful job!