New member

[Anelia Guteva]

Hi Everyone,
My name is Anelia and I am a third year art student. I have been interested in art all my life, and I became particularly interested in portrait painting during the past few years. Unfortunately in my university portraiture and realism are not at all fashionable and I have not been able to rely on my lecturers for advice. I hope that through this forum I will be able to grow as a portrait artist. I am looking forward to sharing experience with you all.
Anelia

[David Draime]

Anelia, welcome! I think you should consider this site your second university...a veritable Portrait University. Just about anything you wish to know about portraiture can be found in existing topics and threads, as well as ongoing discussions, with some of the finest artists around. I'm sure you will enjoy your experience here. All the best,

David

[Peter Dransfield]

David is right, this will be your second university with a goldmine of useful info as well as hundreds of examples of good work and first class critiques, I don't know how long you lurked before you joined - in my case it was more than two years so I had plenty of time to decide it wasn't worth it before I took the plunge - I obviously decided it was and I expect you will think the same. Like most forums the number of members greatly exceeds those active in the forum so I hope you will be among the latter. Tell us more about yourself and your approaches to portrait painting.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Welcome, Anelia! Among the artists I know, it is generally agreed that school is only the first step, that they learned way more after art school, whether or not they considered their art school experience to be a good one. So I hope the forum will be a useful part of your "continuing education." Please post often and don't hesitate to get involved.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Hello Anelia

I went to Rhodes University in Grahamstown, SA, for my undergraduate degree. I was so lucky to have had the last of the British-influenced art lecturers there who really emphasized drawing and observation from life, and who were really passionate about painting despite the current artistic trends. Now Rhodes is very much an installation and conceptual art institution. I went to Wits for my masters degree and it was so bad for traditional art. I really felt ostracized. The thing was - you went around the studios any time of the year (holidays or term-time) and it always seemed as though the place was derelict - like an abandoned art school. And yet everyone was apparently hard at work and the middle of major art projects. They had about 2 weeks of traditional art training - painting and drawing for the first-years as a sort of token gesture for those less topically-abled. Still, I was able to get a double first (I am not showing off - just saying that despite the opposition you can still succeed and enjoy yourself) and had a solo show with good, page-long newspaper and journal reviews straight afterwards.

There are some very good traditional portrait painters in SA, and who are important in the history of SA art. I am just recently represented by the iArt Gallery in Cape Town, and you should look at their site - they have quite a few well-known, award-winning portrait artists there: Hanneke Benade and Clare Mencks, for example, as well as Johann Louw. If you are feeling all alone in portraiture, I would try and get a hold of some of these artists (sometimes they actually reply to your emails!) and ask advice, but also follow their careers and try and see their exhibitions.

Well, it is very nice to have you here, and nice to see your paintings - they show lots of promise. I look forward to seeing more.

[Mary Sparrow]

Welcome Anelia! As already stated, what you can learn from this forum is amazing.

[Anelia Guteva]

Hallo David, Peter, Alexandra, Thomasin and Mary,

Thank you all for writing to me. I am sorry I didn