Apotheoun (Tom Livezey at Eleven)

[Terri Ficenec]

Garth .

Thank you for posting the close-ups! I'm just in awe.

Looking at the softness of definition when you're that close, I'm wondering at what distance from the painting does it all come together visually? 4 or 5 feet?

[Garth Herrick]

Thanks Terri, and Michele!

Terri: I think the painting comes together closer than 4 or 5 feet. It seems okay to me at 2 feet (but maybe I need glasses).

Michele: The figures are exactly life size in the painting, so the boy's head is also. I have had a long habit of working life size, but never larger. I guess this stems from my former practice of making life size standing cut-out portraits on birch panels (with the edges beveled back, like a traditional dummy-board of the 17th century).

I was in a hurry painting this so I was not particular about how wet the paint surface was when scumbled over. Often I strove for a wet into wet technique to maintain better control over subtle tone and value shifts, but after the wet surface had set up, I could work in a gently dragged scumble. Generally the paint was applied very sparingly, but this can be a fault, although it dries faster. If I was applying a carefully controlled velatura (which to me is like a glaze, and is very different from a scumble), then the under layer of paint should seem dry so that it will not be etched or lifted away with brushing and wiping manipulations.

Hope this helps!

[Terri Ficenec]

Originally Posted by Garth Herrick

. . . I think the painting comes together closer than 4 or 5 feet. It seems okay to me at 2 feet (but maybe I need glasses). . . .

Oh Garth... I really didn't mean to imply that it wasn't 'okay' at any distance, it's amazing, --rather was trying to get a sense of how far back you were needing to 'dance' to assess how well all those beautiful subtleties were working together as you painted?

(So sorry, I should've phrased the question more clearly the first time!)

[Garth Herrick]

Oh Michele,

I was afraid that title topic would come up to haunt me. The painting from 10 years ago was "Apotheosis of the Chunnel" which was really a rather arbitrary and mindless title. I was reading about the completion of the English Channel Tunnel (Chunnel), and I visualized the stretched out boy bridging the edge of the pool to the edge of the grass, with his mother's legs completing the bridge. It seemed a metaphore for the Chunnel to me. When I was sculpting Leonardo da Vinci's Horse a few years earlier, Capt Dent (who financed the Horse) was always extolling the apotheosis of this and the apotheosis of that, and the word just grew on me. So I needed a different title for the new version of the painting and Apotheoun seemed to work because the paintings are related. I did not want a more descriptive tiltle like Mother (or Madonna) and Child. Besides, when we all paint our portraits, are we not deifying our subjects somewhat?

[Garth Herrick]

Hi Terri,

Your point is well taken, and I was not paying close attention to your intent. I do need to stand as far back as my cramped studio room will allow to see how all the compositional elements are coming together, or not. It is often helpful to leave the room and come back after a moment. Sometimes I will turn the painting all directions in a hand held mirror to see what's going on.

I don't know.... I think a comfortable viewing distance for display can be anything over four feet, or so.

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Garth Herrick

Oh Michele,

I was afraid that title topic would come up to haunt me. The painting from 10 years ago was "Apotheosis of the Chunnel" which was really a rather arbitrary and mindless title. I was reading about the completion of the English Channel Tunnel (Chunnel), and I visualized the stretched out boy bridging the edge of the pool to the edge of the grass, with his mother's legs completing the bridge. It seemed a metaphore for the Chunnel to me. When I was sculpting Leonardo da Vinci's Horse a few years earlier, Capt Dent (who financed the Horse) was always extolling the apotheosis of this and the apotheosis of that, and the word just grew on me. So I needed a different title for the new version of the painting and Apotheoun seemed to work because the paintings are related. I did not want a more descriptive tiltle like Mother (or Madonna) and Child. Besides, when we all paint our portraits, are we not deifying our subjects somewhat?

Thanks for all the feedback! I just wanted to mention that my other painting, Apotheosis of the Chunnel, which was the inspiration for Apotheoun, can be seen in my introduction in the Meeting Place: Introduce Yourself: Greetings from Philadelphia: page #4: post # 34 http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=4033.

My wife seems to prefer the original concept of Apotheosis of the Chunnel, although I feel Apotheoun is a better example of painting (the former is from 10 years ago).

[Linda Brandon]

Dear Garth,

I don't know how I missed seeing this painting of yours earlier this week. It is extraordinary and wonderful. I'm going to go back and print out what you've written about velatura. You've put living forms in a soft bath that is very appealing.

I also wanted to tell you, for what it's worth, that I had a strong emotional reaction to this painting. To lie in the sun, totally relaxed, completely protected by Moms who will die to protect you... wow! When will this level of trust and safety happen again, other than in childhood; who will ever guard us again this way?

This may not actually be what you were getting at in this painting, but this is what I got out of it. If this were to hang on my wall, I would keep this feeling whenever I looked at the painting, and that gut feeling is what would make me buy it.

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Quite interesting, and refreshing on the Forum - although am wondering if the blue shoes are really necessary there...

[Tom Edgerton]

Garth--

Just an incredible piece....

Wonderful to have it here to learn from. Thanks for posting and commenting so generously.

Best--TE