Final Day of Portrait Society of America 2015 Conference

Sunday morning there was a symposium by a group of eminent artists, followed by two drawing demos by Burton Silverman. It is always interesting to hear successful artists talk about their journey and offer pearls of wisdom.

Sculptor Rhoda Sherbell with Daniel Greene

Everett Raymond Kinstler and artist/author Samuel Adoquei

Mr. Adoquei talked about inspiration. He has a couple of wonderful books available, including The Origin of Inspiration which applies to any creative field. If you do not have Mr. Adoquei's books, make sure to add them to your library!

Mr. Greene showed a number of his series of art auction paintings and shared how he created them. He also offered a great tip about storing leftover paint - he said to be careful with freezing paint, since bloom can occur due to moisture that remains on the surface of the paints.

Mr. Kinstler talked about how painting is a means to communicate and how important it is to have passion and imagination. He recommended that we should assess our paintings by asking how much we can remove that is not contributing to what we are trying to say.

I did not get a photo of the wonderful work shown by the other artists, but here are a couple of the newer works by Mr. Kinstler. 

Painting by Everett Raymond Kinstler

Drawing by Everett Raymond Kinstler

The final presentation was by master artist Burton Silverman, who created two drawings while talking about, "finding your own voice". He said that mistakes are very helpful. Making corrections helps you find out if you have really gotten to the heart of what you want to say. If you make a correction, you need to see what that does to the other decisions you have made. Change allows for imaginative speculation and lets air in.

When speaking of sincerity in art, he said that, "children are rotten", (which got a huge laugh from the audience) and so perhaps the angelic, dressed in white, image that is often seen may not be the only choice.

Mr. Silverman also spoke about how we can learn, even steal, from each other in that we can employ similar techniques. Community is important.

Burton Silverman

Burton Silverman's grandchild in his sketchbook

Delightful drawing from Burton Silverman's sketchbook

For the first drawing he employed a soft graphite pencil in a holder, a stomp and a kneaded eraser. Practical tips included using a pencil holder to use those pencil stubs you may have lying about tour studio. 

He mentioned that General's HB is harder than his preference and seems to be holding a bit of a grudge after mentioning a bad experience with customer service many years ago, which I found rather amusing. He complained about something being wrong with some pencils and didn't get a reply. Note to art material manufacturers - don't tick off a master artist!

Drawing #1 by Burton Silverman

For the second drawing, Mr. Silverman used a Wolfe's carbon pencil, that is a little harder than General's, so more controllable, with more subtle definitions. He also employed a little color in the cheeks for the second drawing. 

Drawing #2 by Burton Silverman

Art of the Portrait 2015 - Saturday, May 2, 2015

On Saturday morning, at the annual Portrait Society of America conference, held this year in Atlanta, we watched Quang Ho and Mary Whyte paint the same subject in oil and watercolor.

Quang and Mary painting live!

This demo demonstrated to me (as a former watercolorist) how much more free and easy you can be with oils, since mistakes can be easily covered up. Quang Ho, the oil painter, quickly laid in the essentials and then refined his painting. I was a couple of minutes late getting to my seat and he had already fully massed in the face and beard.

With watercolor, you must have a definite plan in mind as you need to preserve your whites. You also need to let areas dry and a knowledge of just the right time to go in again is essential, as you can easily mess things up with colors running into areas you do not want them. Progress is necessarily slower, but the results can be really beautiful, with transparent colors glowing.

A side-by-side near the start

Approaching the finish line

Mary Whyte

Quang Ho

At lunch, many artists (including myself) took advantage of the Portfolio Critique service. I love to get as many opinions as I can when I attend The Art of the Portrait conference. This is such a great opportunity to get feedback and advice from experienced painters. I always walk away with new insight, even if the advice is not always the same. What I usually do in that case is look at the work of the artists that are in opposition and choose to believe the one who paints more like I do (or more like I want to). Of course, sometimes everyone says something similar, in which case it is good to sit up and pay close attention to that particular problem. We can all improve in our work and should be eager to keep learning and progressing in our abilities so we can produce top notch art.

It was fun browsing the trade show during lunch and breaks.  I purchased a few much needed (kind of kidding) brushes and received a few free samples. There were also lots of drawing and painting demos going on in the tradeshow hall.

Trade show oil painting demo with model

I also took advantage of the chance to meet Richard Ormond at the break. I had not thought to bring along one of my many books on Sargent (authored by Mr. Ormond) so I got him to sign my program instead.

On Saturday afternoon we watched Daniel Greene, who continued a painting of art materials dealer Jack Richeson that he started at last year's conference. He basically proceeded as usual, sharing his palette and then measuring, adjusting and refining in his precise and methodical manner.

Jack Richeson by Daniel Greene 2015

As the program came to a close, it was time to get ready for the evening's festivities. I met some really nice artists at dinner, including my seat mate to the right, Lisa, who very generously insisted on sharing some of her bottle of red wine with the table. Her family lives in Northern California and make their own olive oil. She ended up leaving before I had a chance to get her last name, so, Lisa, if you read this, send me an email and thank you for the drink!

My neighbour, Lisa's plate

The gorgeous Chris Saper (and friend) channeling Madame X

Michael Shane Neal's portrait of Richard Ormond is unveiled to applause

After the winners of the competition were announced (master artist Max Ginsburg won the grand prize, Jennifer Welty was The People's Choice - click here to see more) and awards handed out, we had an exciting portrait unveiling! I wish I could have gotten a good shot of the portrait of Richard Ormond, but the glare made it impossible. Another exciting development was the announcement of several new signature members of the PSA, including my friend Edward J. Reed (Ted), who also cleaned up in the portfolio category again this year.

Dessert is always outstanding - this was a pecan tart with chocolate, berry and whip cream garnishes 

Portrait Society of America Conference 2015 Day Two: Late Night Shenanigans ...

Portrait Society of America artists took over the Hyatt Grand Buckhead hotel lobby on Friday night, with an impromptu life painting session and live music!

Virgil Elliott entertains in the lobby bar

Anna Rose Bain's painting and palette