College President

[Garth Herrick]

This is a modest 30 x 24 inch portrait of Dr. Thomas Leamer, President of Delaware Valley College. His institution is located near Doylestown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and one of the main focuses is upon agricultural sciences. The campus is essentially one high-tech and bucolic farmstead.

There are already a number of past presidents represented in this same size, so this portrait is just keeping a tradition going. Dr. Leamer is a somewhat stoic and quiet gentleman, and he can be proud of many personally directed accomplishments over his tenure.

This painting is relatively simple. The commission directive simply specified a head and shoulders only portrait with nothing for the background. I elaborated a little; just enough to keep it from being too stark. The background is not quite literal to the setting. I did simplify and distill it a bit. I have painted the face slightly higher in key than I normally have, which helps keep the lighting relatively soft in nature, due to a narrowed dynamic range of values.

This was delivered yesterday and the reception was quite successful. Dr. Leamer, in his reserved manner responded "I will withhold comment until my wife arrives". Minutes later she arrived and was beaming with excitement, so Dr. Leamer at last elicited a smile of satisfaction! The formal unveiling will take place on May 12th.

Here's some images:

Garth