In my galleries under children's portraits you will find two
images of Ben, a painting and drawing.
Ben left this life much too soon after only 14 months in this
world. I was given the honor to draw and
paint his image for members of his family which I pray have given them some
degree of comfort from his passing. As it turned out I had a request to do a
second drawing using the same image I had used for the first one. It was at times a curious feeling to 'copy'
my own work as it turned out. In most
portraits I rarely use anything from the background of the reference photo. The
background in both drawings was simply made up to show Ben running in a sunlit
field without a great deal of distraction from his image. Deciding whether to use the same background
theme or give into the urge to create something new puzzled me for a while but
in the end I decided to use basically the same theme. It was a new experience
for me to actually go back and use my own previous work as a reference piece. I
couldn't help but laugh to myself a bit. Btw, the image in this blog is the new
drawing. You can compare it to the original in the gallery section.
Another new experience for me is a self-portrait. For 2 years I have been asked when I was
going to get around to it and I always put it off. I have resisted it long enough and the
motivation now is to try something a bit different than the portraits I have
painted for my clients. In most cases it
was quite obvious the reference material was taken with the on camera flash or
the lighting was always the same bland look that is so devoid of any creative shadows. So now I won’t have anyone to blame but
myself if I don’t like it!
As the New Year draws closer I am itching to dive into
floral paintings. Karen does fabulous colored pencil and graphite drawings of
irises and other floral subjects, but since she is still working her day job
her time is limited. Hopefully, she will get a chance to publish her website soon. In the meantime, I plan on using
some of her lovely photos of her flowers in her garden for subject
matter.
And finally, landscapes.
We visited Crystal Bridges Museum twice, the last time during and
exhibit of the Hudson River School works. As you can imagine, I have been dying
to try my hand again at landscapes ever since. It has been over ten years since
my last landscape work. (Due to my day job I did no artwork from '05 to '10 when I met Karen. Her
encouragement brought me back to art.) Hopefully in a couple of months I will have one on the
easel. Btw, if you are within driving distance or you happen to be passing
through northwest Arkansas, you should visit Crystal Bridges Museum located in
Bentonville, Arkansas. Each time we have
visited we exhausted ourselves before we exhausted all the possibilities of the
museum. Everything about it is top shelf and first class and you owe it to
yourself to pay a visit. There is literally something there for everyone
from classical to modern abstract and everything in between. We will be back there again next spring.
Welcome to my website.
As you can tell my art revolves around portraiture. I work exclusively
in oils for my paintings and prefer a mixture of graphite and carbon
pencil/charcoal for drawings. Recently
Karen and I purchased a new camera, a Canon T3i to aid in taking reference
photos for my work as well as for Karen's artwork with flowers. It is such a
fantastic camera that I am tempted to retake the photos of some of my artwork
that we still have available, but that is for another time. The quality of the pictures got me to
thinking about an age old debate: photography vs. painting/drawing....camera
vs. artist. Great photography requires
talent, skill, great equipment, and lots of time and effort. Notice I said
GREAT photography as in professional or top amateur. Mastering the nuances of
the equipment itself, composing the shot or capturing what nature gives you and
manipulating the light is way beyond what most people think of as photography
when they shoot a snapshot with their phone or point and shoot camera. Not that
it’s impossible to make a great shot with limited knowledge and equipment but
it becomes more difficult to achieve stellar results. In short, it requires
EFFORT. Same as painting or drawing or sculpting or any other artwork done by
hand. That’s why I have great respect and admiration for those that achieve
outstanding results in any field of expression. So why bother with painting and
drawing when so much can be done by equipment, i.e. camera, computer etc...?
Let me ask you, how many people do you personally know that have a hand painted
or hand drawn work of art in their home, let alone a portrait of themselves,
their spouse, child, grandchild or parents? Not many I’m sure. Because artwork
created by human hand is unique. A top notch photographer can produce exciting
portrait work but an excellent true to life portrait in oil created with
thousands of brushstrokes by human hand still has a charm and quality that are
unmatched by anything produced by a printer no matter what the quality it is.
To me, each have earned their own place at the table of the visual arts, both
painter and photographer.
To me the camera is simply a tool. Like an extra brush or maul stick. Ideally I like to use photos for reference and combine the best of both worlds: photo and life. Use the photo for the convenience and life to get it right. However that is not always possible with portrait work for the average client. Life and distance and time get in the way. Therefore I try to make the painting true to the photo and then 'enhance' it in anyway I can to make it even more lifelike and not strictly a copy of the shot. This requires a lot of judgment and observation to pull it off. I like to think of it as Photoshop with a brush. A real brush.
