Hon. William M. Marutani

[Jane Bradley]

Garth,
Every single element of this painting is masterful - composition, color., etc. I love that you are not afraid to use color and breathe life into the portrait.

[Josef Sy]

Garth, Just beautiful. Congratulations! Just love the color scheme and overall ambiance of it.. Well done.

[Garth Herrick]

I thought this one would never get noticed. Yet another Judge!? I go away for several hours and WOW! My email suggested just one response. Thanks, let me attempt to respond in kind, this is more than I expected.

Ilaria: Thanks, I vaguely remember my grandmother suggesting this color scheme when I was about five years old and using Crayola crayons. Maybe this has subliminally stuck with me these past forty-one years, I don't know? In reality Judge Marutani was sitting in front of windows with white venetian blinds; not very interesting I thought.

Linda: Thanks, I actually was daunted by those hands. They sat unfinished for a long time. Finally I just bit the bullet and everything seemed to pull together in a few hours like magic. The cast shadow to the left of the wristwatch is one I made up to accomodate the puffy robe sleeves. The choice of the interlaced fingers gesture was very spontaneous. It was a quick fleeting gesture caught in a digital snapshot. It just felt right.

Michele: WOW Thanks!

Mike: Thanks! The seeming natural quality to the cast shadows are due to the fact that they are mostly derived from a single photo with all of this information taken early on a December morning with a low raking sun. When I came back to having him sit the following March, it was impossible to acheive this lighting effect again.

Patricia: Thanks, (and of course you will, why not!).

Jimmy: Thaaaaaaaannnnks! Like I said to Linda above, I guess I was just lucky to get a great reference photo with this magical lighting.

Allan: Thanks, and I think you have a good point! It seemed much more natural and intuitive to paint a living Judge for once. I like your interpretation of the hands' energy. I sensed energy in them too, when I saw them in action. I don't know why I settled on this color scheme, but originally it was quite a bit more intense, if not fluorescent. It needed a lot of toning down, and these earth colors seemed much more livable. I don't yet know precisely where this will hang in City Hall (generally I need to know this, but here no one could tell me), so the color scheme is not particularly going to relate to other paintings, except they almost certainly all will have a lot of black as a theme!

Elizabeth: Thanks, like I just said, this color scheme went though some evolution along the way.

Chris: Thanks. Thanks! The digital reference picture on a December morning was too cool in overall color effect for my taste, so I manually interpolated the colors to warm them up.

Jane: Thanks! Just too much! I am more afraid of color than you may think, but in this case I could discern plenty of distinction in colors from the reference from the beginning, so this just naturally fell into place for me.

Josef: Thanks! Being in the presence of this Judge, I could really sense the warmth of his personality.

Best to you all,

Garth

[Terri Ficenec]

Garth -

Just wanted to add my kudos here. He's alive with personality. Bet he'll be a standout among all those other judges! Beautiful.

[Scott Bartner]

Dear Garth:

I saw this portrait last night after coming home from a 6 hour train trip, and despite the fatigue was absolutely riveted to the screen of my computer. Behind the calm exterior of that face exists a strength and inner peace I felt at every level (except a literary one, being too inept to correctly put it into words). You are one of the few artists who can paint below the surface.

I'm going back for another look now.

[Jean Kelly]

I have to second what Scott said so well. Inner peace and strength, his face shows it all. The skin tones in his face are worth studying at length, I particularly like his mouth. In this case you can not say that this portrait is of a man with "something wrong with his mouth"!

Jean

[Sharon Knettell]

Garth,

You have managed an exquisite painting from an area which I would find hard to mine. The color combination of the background is very evocative of Asian art, vermilion and gold, understated but effective.

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Scott Bartner

Dear Garth:

I saw this portrait last night after coming home from a 6 hour train trip, and despite the fatigue was absolutely riveted to the screen of my computer. Behind the calm exterior of that face exists a strength and inner peace I felt at every level (except a literary one, being too inept to correctly put it into words). You are one of the few artists who can paint below the surface.

I'm going back for another look now.

Dear Terri, Scott, Jean, and Sharon,

Thank you all so much for your kind praise.

Scott, now I am somehow the one feeling inept without the proper thank-you.

With appreciation,

Garth

[Heidi Maiers]

Garth,
I don't think I could add any more without repeating what has already been expressed here. Well deserved praise indeed. I do hope you will let us all know how the unveiling goes on Monday!

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Heidi Maiers

Garth,
I don't think I could add any more without repeating what has already been expressed here. Well deserved praise indeed. I do hope you will let us all know how the unveiling goes on Monday!

Thank you so much Heidi, I will.

Garth