Following paintings: Lyndsay
When I first got out of school and moved back to Portland in 2003, I knew I wanted to be an artist but I didn’t know how I would manage to make a living. I soon set on a path that, at first glance, doesn’t seem particularly business-savvy: I started giving away art. It was a way to meet people—“can I paint your portrait?” is a pretty effective way of finding your way into someone’s life—and build my portfolio without painting my family members over and over again.
Lyndsay was part of my “make friends and paintings” initiative, and I’m so glad she was.
To learn more about Lyndsay and one of the amazing things she does, go here.
Gwenn Seemel
Lyndsay
2005
acrylic on canvas
19 x 19 inches
(detail below)
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CATEGORIES: - Interviews - Philosophy - Portraiture - Video -
(3) Comments / Commentaires: Following paintings: Lyndsay
I’ve done this with a couple of other subjects so far (here and here) and I’m aiming to make it a monthly thing. It’s an excellent excuse to get back in touch with important people I may or may not see regularly, and I love to look at my paintings from a few years back. It helps me to get some perspective on what I’m doing and feeds my current work…
It’s nice to meet a fellow PDXer—virtually anyway!
Thanks for sharing those other links—they are all great! I think it’s a wonderful idea to look back on what you did a while ago and see the perspective of the person who owns the painting, especially if it’s a painting of them! Keep painting on!—-Alli
Allison...
First of all, I think it’s wonderful that when you first moved back to Portland that you started painting people’s portraits, and then giving them the paintings! Maybe it seems crazy to people, to give your work away for free, but it seems really awesome to be able to make a personal connection with someone in that way.
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--- -- - --- - ---- - - --- ----- -- -Thanks for posting this, and thanks for sharing your video interview! I love the idea of checking back in with people to see how they feel about the painting, and what it’s been like to live with it (even though she said it had been at her mom’s house.)
Have you done this with other artists? Gone back and interviewed them? Such an interesting process! Hope you have a great day!—Allison Bratt (fellow PDXer