Jen With Glasses, May, 2017
I've been painting portraits from live model sittings for many years now. Heaven knows I don't do it for fame or fortune; I rarely sell one of these paintings, and I have dozens of them stacked high in my studio. On the evenings when I get together with my fellow artists to gather around a model, it's often snowing or raining hard, and I don't get home again until around 11:00pm.
Painting Jen in the Studio
So why do I do it, week after week, year after year? Because no other subject gives me a thrill the way capturing a person's likeness, and sometimes even their personality on canvas does. I can paint a really wonderful apple or bunch of flowers, or even a sunset and be happy with it, but I'm never as fulfilled as I am after a session with a live, breathing human being in front of me, surrounded by like-minded artists who are my friends.
We are all after the same thing-- to describe and translate the uniqueness of the person sitting before us onto canvas. And when we come close, we feel that thrill.
And we will be back next week!
Jen, 2013
Jen, 2016
