Mentor

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Debra,

This is a wonderful "artist at work" painting, fresh and strong. (I thought for a minute that it was one of your pastels.) I also admire the way you've framed his head between the two verticals.

You know, I'm wondering if one of the reasons everyone says your work is so direct and bold is not just because of your painterly strokes, but also perhaps the way you frequently crop your subjects. You seem to crop tighter than many other painters do, what do you think?

[Debra Jones]

Absolutely Linda.
This, as you know, is one of the widest vistas I have done in a while.
It is a lot like my self-portrait and I am trying to figure out how to work a bit more with symbols and scene.

I have a philosophy about my portraits. I seem to think if you show a head with too many clues as to time and place you are set up for dating it. The back combed flips of the sixties and tight fingerwaves of the thirties and twenties. But I keep thinking that if I wanted to show a classic, and timeless image, I close in on the features to keep people from placing it in a specific time.
Mostly an odd and eccentric idea of my own.

This is a big one for me.
I have begun just taking a sheet of canvas to a board and doing the art. If it rates a stretch, I do it after the fact when it is dry and if not, it goes on pant hangers in a closet for a couple of months. I can store them flat out here in the dry with a little care to watch they don't stick to anything or roll them very loosly just to archive them. All those open studio pieces on stretchers are staring out at me. I need to pull the staples out and put them in a library!
dj*

[Heidi Maiers]

Debra,
Congrats on your recent claim to fame in doggie world. It's scary to think, but I am starting to believe that there is a bigger market for dog portraiture rather than people. My highest paying commissions this year have been for dogs.
Anyway, looking at the close-ups of this portrait really makes me want to give painting a try. I just love your loose, yet well placed style. Very realistic, yet unmistakably a painting. You rock!