Jordana-NYC Workshop Demo Painting

[Marvin Mattelson]

Meet Jordana. This portrait was painted during my 2008 New York City workshop which ended last week. This painting was developed over five days of painting during the twelve day workshop. I did the underpainting on the first day and I laid in color on my second day of painting. I continued to refine the painting the last three days. All this while explaining exactly what I was doing, and why.

[Linda Brandon]

Marvin, this is spectacular, a very beautiful and subtle piece of work with great control. Thanks for giving us these closeups - I'll come back to look at this often.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Lovely, Marvin! What a great face she has. You must have enjoyed painting her.

[John Reidy]

Oh, how nice. I would say it is to be expected but that almost sounds like an insult. Every painting I catch of yours exceeds my expectations.

I, too, thank you for these close ups.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Thank you Linda. I appreciate your kind remarks. I was surprised how far I was actually able to take this painting, considering it was a class demonstration.

Thanks Alex. Jordana is indeed a very interesting and intriguing person and she and I magically clicked. She's has a lot of energy and is very creative in her own right. Her character is both external as well as internal. I believe that a strong connection to my sitter does indeed make a big difference.

John, thanks, as always, for your sentiments. I'm glad I'm exceeding someone's expectations. For me, each painting is a such a battle, trying to get the canvas to coincide with my vision and push further still. As I continue to refine the painting, I'm constantly making a myriad of adjustments, each getting smaller and smaller. Interestingly, sometimes the minutest of strokes can have the greatest effect. Whenever this happened in the workshop, my students would mockingly ooh and ah! It was this workshop's signature running gag. One of the things I try to get across to my students is that in the end, patience is our greatest weapon. The race goes not to the swiftest, but the surest.

[Margaret Ferguson]

What a beautiful classical image, her character really shines through. I love how you've handled the paint and your palette.