Summer posthumous commission

[Tom Edgerton]

I painted several commissions this summer, and this is the one I feel best about, mostly because it was the most difficult to pull off.

The composition was built from a head taken from a family vacation photo, a model posed on my front porch here in North Carolina, and an environment culled from hundreds of views I shot of the family home in Alabama. Everything was chosen for consistency in the direction of light.

There are the usual compromises. I looked at probably fifty years of photos of my subject, and his expression never varied. I also originally sketched him holding a coffee cup, but the family raised camellias on the side (they have a variety named after them), and the blossom figured into a family narrative that was too compelling to ignore.

All in all though, I'm fairly satisfied with the result.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Tom, this is magnificent! I can really appreciate what went into constructing tis portrait from various pieces, and getting it right. Wow! You pulled off an amazingly natural composite figure with such an authentic feel to it. The family must be thrilled.

The camellia in his hand is powerful. How many times have we seen a portrait of a man holding a flower? I can't think of one other portrait. It's very subtle, and very natural.

The perspective is REAL, as if the viewer is actually standing there rather than looking at a photo. The color harmony so well done. I especially love the way the porch chairs and floor are close in color and value, and you let them form a whole without trying to make more of a distinction than necessary between them.

[Mary Ann Archibald]

This is beautiful. I love that you've incorporated a strong narrative in such a way that this painting will be meaningful to the family and honour this man's life and legacy.

[Mike Dodson]

Your efforts have certainly payed off. I like the way you painted the lighted path in the background to the right of the portrait. This to me allows the painting to read well. Brings us over to the chairs on the porch. Well done!

[Patricia Joyce]

Thank you for sharing the process. This is going to thrill the family. Very nice.

[Tom Edgerton]

Alex, thanks, your response is very gratifying.

The flower is deliberately under-rendered and de-emphasized. Once I realized it had to be included, the trick was how to do it without making him look like a schookid carrying a candle into a convocation. I hope it works.

I'm constantly struggling with how get emotional truth without equating it with over-detailing and over-polishing, and I find it quite hard. I want to tell my client's story, and satisfy myself artistically (and pay the light bill). It's a lot to ask in one piece, and it doesn't always happen. Your work, among others, has been a guide for me in this regard.

Mike, Patty, and Mary Ann--thanks so much for the encouragement!

[David Draime]

Tom,

This is such a well-realized painting, so unified in how it comes across - it is hard to believe that it is a composite from so many fragments. The flower is beautifully understated, and I'm intrigued by the light that is reflected in the shirt, bouncing off an unseen wall...(?)...implying more than we can see. You've captured that delicate morning light (I read it as morning anyway) and created a space I want to enter and inhabit a while. Lovely.

This is one of my favorites of yours.

David

[Tom Edgerton]

David--

Thanks so much...you're right about the light; it is early morning (part of the family story again). The light is skimming in low from our left, and bouncing off the front of the house on our right--you can see a portion of it back next to the window shutter behind the chairs. So the secondary reflected light was very strong, but later in the morning, when the sun was higher, this reflected light fell off dramatically.

It's a beautiful antebellum southern family home. I was there twice, and hated to leave each time.

[SB Wang]

清真
qīngzhēn
〖pure and simple〗∶纯真朴素

[Allan Rahbek]

Tom,
It's a fine portrait. I like how you have composed the architecture and landscape.

It shows that the man is fond of his house and garden, and maybe especially in the morning when the flowers look their best.