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| By the Sea 9x11 oil on panel |
I have been off on a tangent doing portraits. Portrait painting is exhilarating and terrifying. Painting a portrait is like playing
with one of those tile puzzles where you get all the tiles in the right place
on one side and you are SO excited- until you see what happened on the other
side.
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| Safe 16x20 oil on panel |
The portrait is more challenging than my flowers because I
can’t change things. All the features must be in the right spot. I can pick at
it for hours and everytime I pass by I think no, no that isn't quite right. Why
didn’t I see that before? And the portrait must say something about the subject
or you might as well just take a photo. One crazy brushstroke and your
beautiful subject suddenly has no cheek bone. Or has your nose not hers! Or
looks like an old man instead of a baby. And you must be careful about painting
at night because with some bad lighting the lovely subject you painted last
night may become a yellow alien in the morning light!
And the hardest part is
that your subject needs to like it too. My skill level is just so frustrating!
I found a few quotes by famous artists that give me hope and
a chuckle:
“A portrait is a picture in which there is just a little
something not quite right about the mouth. – John Singer Sargent
“You know, if one paints someone’s portrait, one should not
know him if possible.” –Otto Dix
“ When I painted his portrait and offered it to him, he
glanced at the canvas, then, looking at himself in the mirror, thought a moment
and said: Well, no! Keep it! –Marc Chagall
So there you have it. Like most things in life I suppose
this is going to take some time and practice. If you recognize these two let me
know, if you want to volunteer to be a victim or if you have some tips for
portrait painting let me hear from you. And don't forget to go to my Website: Lanabrowneart.com to see my other paintings.
One more quote-“Every time I paint a portrait I lose a
friend” –John Singer Sargent
This is risky business. Till next time,
Lana
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