ABOUT PORTRAITS

When painting a portrait, a large part of me becomes a rapt spectator, anticipating that special moment when paint comes to life within the magic window!

I do not use a projector, grids, or any other mechanical methods for my self-expressive works—just my mind, intuition, heart, eyes, and a brush. Painting entirely freehand keeps me curious and excited to see how each painting will turn out. The process may look sublime to the casual observer, but for me almost every painting requires me to summon all the courage I can muster! I know I’m working for a difficult customer…no, not you…me! What is this difficult customer wanting from me? “I’ll know it when I see it,” he growls. So I push myself relentlessly with each new portrait, knowing my taskmaster will be satisfied with nothing less.

If you’re thinking “why not just have a nice photo taken” then please come look at one of my painted portraits in person. There is so much more going on — depth of character, richness of color and surface texture, bringing out of personality, interpretation of a whole person — rendered in a form that will last literally for centuries.

I paint in acrylics instead of oils for my health’s sake, for the environment’s sake, and for durability of the completed work. I can paint just fine in oils, but choose not to. I realize there are modern thinners available for oil painting that have less fumes (lower VOC’s) than turpentine, but they are still solvents, and I don’t want to breathe any fumes or dispose of even small amounts of solvents. Oil paint also has some advantages at the easel, but in my experience acrylics have even more advantages. To each his or her own, but I think it’s just a matter of time till oils will be supplanted by acrylics for “green” reasons, just as lead based glazes were phased out of ceramics production in the 1990′s after centuries of use.

According to a paint researcher from Eastern Michigan University, for Golden Artist Colors, ”The weight of available evidence indicates that acrylics will prove to be more durable than oils, and oils have been around for 500 years.” (Read article)

Guess I’d better do a good job, if my work is going to be around for that long!

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