The Admiral

[Tom Edgerton]

Hi, all!

Sorry I've been out of the loop--we're finishing a house with attached studio and it's eaten up all the spare time.

Here's a painting we unveiled last month. The subject is VAdm. Rodney Rempt, currently the superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The portrait was painted for the Naval War College at Newport, RI, to commemorate his recent tenure as president there.

Everyone seemed pleased with the result.

Best--TE

[Michele Rushworth]

Perfection, Tom! I particularly like your use of the rocket photo in the background.

How long has it been since he left the Naval War College?

[Janel Maples]

Very nice Tom. I can see why everyone was pleased with the results. I like it a lot.

[Michele Rushworth]

I just had to come and look at this again. THIS is how official portraits should be done. It has everything: pleasant expression, perfect drawing, balanced composition, color unity, etc. What more can I say? Can I be you when I grow up?

[Marvin Mattelson]

Beautiful! It has great realism without appearing photographic, a rare trait indeed, these days. I really love the subtlety of the color scheme, a wonderful example of less being more. Bravo.

[Tom Edgerton]

Thanks a lot, guys.

Michele--He's been at Annapolis since last fall. The missile image came as a part of the job specs--a good part of the Admiral's career was devoted to developing and implementing missile defense systems--and the dicey part was figuring out how to get it in without it taking over. I'm pleased you think this aspect is successful.

Marvin--I really appreciate it. I'm handling backgrounds better since you dissected the Ingres for us.

Best--TE

[Chris Saper]

Dear Tom,

I completely echo Marvin's ..(and everyone else's) comments - what a spectacular composition and a beautiful, and just exactly, restrained color harmony.

When you get a chance, I would love to hear your ruminations on how you decided on this composition. Too little is written on composition, and it is way too important to gloss over.

Bravo.

PS Michele, I am actually hoping to become an admiral when I grow up, so Tom can paint my portrait.

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Tom,

You always find the thoughtful human being behind any uniform or corporate suit. Your color choices and your compositions are always tasteful and solid without being formulaic or hamfisted. And your technique is, as always, one of my favorites. It's a good thing you're such a nice person or I would really be annoyed with you by now.

Congratulations on another excellent portrait!

[Linda Brandon]

I forgot to ask: how did you light this for the photography session?

And I am dying to see your studio, how about posting photos in the 'Studio' category?

[Tom Edgerton]

Thanks again, all--

I'm very pleased that folks seem to think the composition works well, as I was juggling a lot of material required in the commission--most notably the missile image.

To respond to Chris' request, here are some of the thoughts I had, both in advance of the photo session, and while painting.

The Admiral requested that the missile image be included, as it was a prominent phase in his varied career. It also became evident that he wanted it prominently displayed, and perhaps as a part of the background space behind him, montage fashion. I felt this would have opened up a lot of spatial and perceptual confusion on the part of the viewer, so I suggested treating it as a piece of art, not as an "event," which thankfully, he agreed to later. (Fortunately, he didn't want a lot of clutter on the desk/credenza too.) I knew from the beginning that the danger was in the image's drama overtaking the whole painting, so framing it "corralled" it and kept it in check. As I played with the scale of it, it suggested some directional lines within the composition, such as the line of the exhaust cloud connecting with the line of his shoulders. The quality of the "clouds" also suggested some of the form and edge treatment of the Admiral's shadow on the wall, for balance.

Also, the blue matte around the photo in his office suggested the background, as I wanted the image to become as subordinate and non-contrasty as I could make it. The rich cobalt blue of the sky suggested a deep, cool shadow, which could de-emphasize the weight of the dress blues in relation to the lighter coloring of the Admiral's head. I also was careful to keep the lightest value in the photo darker than the shirt, and I grayed down some of the vividness of the "fire," so the eye would still go to the head first as I hoped.

Linda, I'd like to claim a lot of innovation in the lighting, but it's really classic portrait lighting--45 degree main light on our left, fill light for shadows behind the camera to get detail in the desk and dark uniform. I did use a "skim" light over his right (our left) shoulder to rim light the hair and shoulders and hopefully to give the cookie-cutter silhouette of the dress blues some added form. Ideally, I'd have set all of this up in his office and experimented more, but I only had thirty minutes with him for photos and we had to use a borrowed conference room and table, so the final compositional space is created later in the painting. Thus I had to use a "bulletproof" lighting scheme that I had a lot of experience with. We did try a seated pose, but he's a very tall man, and I wanted some sense of his height. But the horizontals in the lower half also help to balance the verticals in the upper half, and the pose on the edge of the desk helped make a very formal situation less so--for his prominence, the Admiral is a very accessible man. Too, I only had a three-quarter size format to work in, so this compromise in pose let me sneak in a little more of his height in a limited frame size.

I've gone on too long, but these are some of the things I was thinking, as you all have done in your own work. As usual, there are aspects I might have handled differently, but I'm glad and reassured that you guys think it works as well as it does.

Enough from me, but thanks again.--TE