Paintings grow up in families in my studio: I tend to work on four or six canvases at once. I mix a color for one painting, use it, and then look around to see who else might want a dab of it. In the end, paintings which have no logical connection in subject matter sometimes share a common bond of color layers.
Here I have started the two portraits of Lily commissioned by her mother, along with a work for another client (the portrait of Katie which is towards the back of the photo) and a painting of my sister-in-law Wendy (on the right). Not included in this family snapshot are Jim’s portrait and the painting of my father’s centenarian friend Bill, both of which I was also working on at the time.
This “full house” approach to painting is important to me because I’m always learning from paintings. What works on one gets applied and re-shaped on another.
As I work on a family, one or two paintings usually distinguish themselves at some point, calling out to be finished. From this group, Jim’s “after heart transplant” portrait had to be completed, and then, right afterwards, Wendy’s portrait practically finished itself while Katie’s too begged for final touches.
From the initial charcoal sketch on the bird’s eye to the finished painting, Katie’s portrait took two months to complete--which is about how long I like to take for a painting. Measured in individual hours spent painting, the average work ranges from fifteen to fifty, but I cannot sit down and work straight through those hours to finish a painting. I need to spread the paint time over at least a two week period.
All told, I have now idea how many hours it took to paint Katie’s portrait, but, with the help of my camera, I do know what some of those hours looked like!
A beginning for the portrait of Katie.
I was working on bird’s eye instead of canvas. This material has a subtle patterning on it (visible below in the detail of the completed painting).
Bird’s eye can be more dry or raw than canvas the way that I do my priming, so I spent these first phases of the process literally pouring on the color to establish a base from which to work.
This process image was taken twelve days after the first image posted above and about three weeks after I began work on the painting. Looking back, it’s clear that Katie looks nothing like herself, but, at the moment when I took the picture, this was as close as I could get to a likeness of her. The layering that I do is not only necessary for aesthetic effect in the final painting, it’s also my way of getting to know the face I’m painting. I feel my way towards a likeness, painting and then editing and re-editing myself with more layers of paint.
This portrait is intended to form a pair with the 2006 portrait of this diptych, so here I’m bringing in a similar patterning in the background.
This process shot represents a full month of work on this painting. Katie is starting to be more recognizable.
Softening some of the coloring in the face using a wide brush…
...and pouring on more paint in my puddling manner in order to soften the colors further.
Here, I’m reclaiming some definition. I’m a week away from finishing the painting.
At this point, I’ve fixed the hair in the top left so that it’s more true to Katie’s style.
This process image represents the beginning of my last day of work, with just a few details left to finish.
Katie
2008
acrylic on bird’s eye
30 x 24 inches
(detail below)
Katie’s portrait may very well end up in California, while Wendy’s painting will go to Nova Scotia and the centenarian’s portrait will probably travel to Utah. Lily’s portraits, when completed, will hang in two separate houses in Portland, and Jim’s painting adorns still another Portland home. The subjects of these portraits don’t know the ties that bind them to these other people, but, in my mind, these paintings are forever linked…
...just like this new family which is currently inhabiting my studio! As you can see, some members from the last group are still around: Lily’s two portraits are not yet close to being finished, but the centenarian’s is finally beginning to look like something, and I’m excited to be beginning four new paintings for an upcoming series.