Impressionist portraits

These are a series of portraits I have done predominately of people I know and am familiar with. When the markets and economy as whole plunged in 2008, I faced a diminishing market, to be polite. Portraits have always been a specific work driven form at best in the 2000s’ Should I adapt - how? should i become campy and trendy? Just not my way.


I simply started painting smaller - 8 x 10 in (20.32 x 25.4 cm) for my own state of mind practice and to keep working. No expectations, just friends and acquaintances I would take pictures with my iPhoto and if they were of interest I would paint them in a rather expressionist method. This for me is several steps away from a “formal” portrait where the colors a muted, the transitions are subtle and the focus is specific to that portrait. I have come to enjoy these greatly - example of the portrait dating back to the Venus of Willendorf forward includes many exaggerations of the human body that have enticed and has esthetically pleased people from the beginning of time. It would not be true to say that I don’t treasure the realism achieved by master artists because I seek them out as mentors of what is.

These are some of my pieces which may have saved my life.

-Gil

Jeffery & Tiffany Bishop

Jeffery & Tiffany Bishop

* My World *

Well, I’ve gone and done it... pictures of my refuge, sanatorium, art space, really a shed.  Sure takes the romantic artist scenario by the ears. But it’s my space and I get work done - nice music too. 

That is a thick sheet of glass I use for paints, I think it was a glass cutting board at one time. It is thick enough for me to feel secure in mixing scraping in order to clean up and generally sturdy enough not to take the wear.

So I lay out the colors that I feel I am most likely to use for a painting and then add colors as I go along. I don’t necessarily use a “minimal palate” nor an extended one. For the impressionist portraits that I have been doing recently 

Vasari paints: Cadmium red medium, viridian, cobalt blue, cadmium yellow light, transparent brown, zinc white, Peralba titanium white, Gamblin buff titanium, alizarin permanent, raw umber. 

synchronization

It's neat to successfully capture the recognizable image of another person - or animal for that matter. This is a portrait of another kind, it still a portrait - just a little different. We all know the standard measurements to a face, adult, child, male, female. As you look into a glass a broken glass or type carnival mirror there is still a face, a portrait. We have at times seen contorted and grill'in and perplexed , happy, sad delirious faces. All I think portraits that are worthy of capturing, maybe more-so.
So... watch the birdie ... smile!

What good are old phonebooks?

For me they are a resource, no please don’t send me your phonebooks, let me explain.

When painting in oil, I will often use two brushes of the same basic tone/color, such as a flesh or facial color. One is for the lighter mix and the other is for the darker mix. From these two I can use the same brush to paint a range using light without having to clean my brush constantly. What’s the phonebook for - call a shrink? Calm down - I’m getting to the point here.

The phonebook is for wiping off paint from my brush prior to selecting or mixing a slight variation to my “light” mix. Works very well for me and I just flip the page for another clean page - excellent! When I feel that the brush might be getting “muddy” I then wash it in solvent, walnut oil or some such, then use the phonebook again to take most of the pigment and solvent off and away I go. A time saver, I like that.

Brush Recovery

This doesn't happen very often. However sometimes I am really eager to clean up after a painting session. There i am - I've left my brushes in a container and inevitably at the bottom the bristles are distorted into various shapes that they were never intended. Total loss?

Not hardly. In order to recover this brush what I use a brush aid called Brush Shaper by Mona Lisa. I have no connection with Mona Lisa whatsoever.

From here I clean the brush as I normally would, dip the brush in the brush shaper and then reshape the brush as best I can. I just want all of the hairs together, if the general shape is still twisted - that's ok - the next step deals with  that.

To correct ant twisting or bending I then put it into my paper clamp and in this case use the unprinted side of a business card in order to reshape the brush back to useable. This procedure seems to work out extremely well for me. Save that brush - it wasn't the brushes' fault!

How do I Paint?

Sounds like a setup for a joke - and sometimes it is. However, I am asked by other artists and I answer this way…
I am a curious person and like the challenge of something new. I enjoy painting alla prima - all in one session.  Wet-in-wet, three hours max, as in a studio session. Summer is a slow - read pretty much non-existent time for group studios. I also paint, think about it, let it dry, go on to another painting or what ever; come back and paint more. In this case, I have been brushing on walnut oil so that the surface is wet and I can work my pigments back in that way. Seems to work well, so I don’t often use retouch varnish or a mixture. Bonus; walnut oil is eatable! It also does a decent job of cleaning brushes - I just don’t eat it after I do. The pure walnut oil that is strained I can purchase from the art store, or I can get a nice large container from the nearby health food store. Like I said - its eatable.

Potted Plant

Here is something a little different for me. This is a pen & ink drawing which a used colored pencils to fill in the color. What brought this on? I just purchased a packet of Loofa seeds. The thought crossed my mind to draw the (hopefully) resulting plants in a series. Sounds wierd enough to be one of my projects.

brush maintenance

Well I didn't wait for the new years in order to clean up my studio. What a mess - even for me. No pictures please, too gross. But I did it. In addition in my housekeeping I organized my oil paints - man, but I have a lot of paint. Especially as I was 'resupplied' over Christmas. I put them in piles organized initially as reds, blues, yellows, browns, grays/whites/black, greens. I put them in separate drawers in order to keep integrity and as I need one for painting I go to the drawer and pick out the one that I feel I need to use up first. Great plan - see how it works out in practice.

Next is a tip I picked up for brush maintenance - this for my flats, filberts, brights in order to keep a shape and edge on them. 

I wash them and shape them in an expected manner, then I use a piece of clean (no printing on the side touching the brush hairs) cardboard. I would use most any kind paper as long as it is clean. I fold the paper over into a wedge, place the brush hairs in the fold and secure the two, and apply pressure with a paper clip. Nice. Shapes the hairs nicely, with a good to excellent quality brush I now have a well tapered and shaped brush ready for my next painting.