Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown

[Alexandra Tyng]

Here's one of my recent portaits of a husband-wife team at work. Robert Venturi is an architect and Denise Scott Brown is an urban planner. Together they have designed many major (and often controversial) buildings in various countries and have written many books on their ideas.

I began this portrait by observing them at work, in their conference room, which seemed to be the best setting for a portrait. The walls are covered with posters of their projects. One of their major themes is finding beauty in ordinary, even tacky, architecture like gas stations and MacDonald's twin arches. You can see why their ideas are controversial. The title of one of their books, Complexity and Contradiction, kept coming to mind, and I decided to make that the theme of the painting.

I sketched them on two occasions, once while they met with their office manager and once while they were being interviewed. Both times, I noticed that Bob usually wrote notes on a yellow pad while Denise did most of the talking. Once in a while he interjected a comment. I checked this out with them, and they agreed this was characteristic of their dynamic. They also wanted to be seated at the table.

Denise has spent a significant part of her career striving to be recognized as Bob's equal partner, and this is an issue that also concerns Bob, so I thought about a way to arrange them in the composition so that they had equal billing, so to speak. Bob is slightly forward, but more to the side, while Denise is back farther but more toward the center.

I set up a couple of appointments for doing oil sketches, but each timer they turned out to be too busy to sit still for an hour, so I finally decided to go ahead and photograph them. This has been happening a lot to me lately with very busy/famous people--I guess I need to learn how to be more assertive! But I made lots of color notes and they were very helpful.

[Terri Ficenec]

Just Beautiful Alex! Love your use of color here!. . . and you've created a real sense of this couple, engaging, busy and full of life. Looking at the painting I feel as if I know them.

[Debra Jones]

Oh the gentleman's lips! They look exactly as I remember my grandfather. A loose weight with a rounded turn! Made me very nostalgic. What a fond memory you just threw at me this morning!

[Chris Saper]

Dear Alex,

Beautiful job! You are SO good with these complex designs, wonderfully interlaced - those little rectangles of strong color on the table really command the viewer's eye movement.

Lovely, expressive brushwork.

[Tom Edgerton]

Terrific composition, and a GREAT feel for space and "air."
Also character.

Best--TE

[Cindy Procious]

Wow, Alex! This is outstanding! I love the high key colors and your wonderful brushwork.

Thanks for sharing your process for composing your work, too. It's very inspiring.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thank you all! Your comments are very much appreciated and respected, as you are all wonderful artists.

Terri--I'm glad the painting somehow makes you feel you know them. I wanted to portray them as very approachable and informal, but at the same time as professionals, and that can be a tricky thing.

Debra--I had such a time getting his mouth just right! But in the end it is really his, so I'm glad its idiocyncracies reminded you of your grandfather.

Chris--thank you. I knew I had to include the busy stuff on the table or it wouldn't look like their office. The books I added later (including the title Complexity and Contradiction on top of the pile) because the papers everywhere began to have too much sameness, and I felt there needed to be something with greater weight and darker value in the right bottom corner. The compositions come to me as a whole in my mind, and I'm very flattered that you think I do a decent job with this type of thing because it always feels like such a gamble.

Tom--I really appreciate that you feel the "air." There was so much color and pattern, I was very worried about nailing the subltety of the difference between the values in the foreground compared to those in the background. And thanks, I'm glad their character comes across.

Cindy--It's good to know you like the colors. It was the first time I felt that I succeeded reasonably well at such a high-key busy composition. The clothing was a combination of outfits from two different days. Actually I got a kick out of the pink/blue theme because it's the feminine/masculine theme.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Oh Alex, what an orchestra of colours you have so masterfully played here, and a really well thought out composition.
I love the invitation into the painting, that sheet of paper on the table, but there are a lot of interesting shapes and diagonals, and...
there's so much in here!
Ilaria

[Alexandra Tyng]

Oh, hi, Ilaria, I almost missed your post! Thank you so much. The papers and folders on the table were a lot of fun. They even use a color-coded system of post-it notes that fit right in with the color scheme. Diagonals are one of my favorite things to play with, maybe one of those things that carries over from early childhood. My mother has always been interested in geometry, and I used to listen to her talking about how triangulation strengthened things, so I guess it got into my painting somehow.

[Allan Rahbek]

Alex,
this is such a sweet painting, everything is color. Look how all colors are reflected in the table, wonderful.

Allan