Portraiture - Secret Studies

Oil study on linen by Marian Dioguardi from Sketch Group, May 2014

Thursday nights, when life permits, I attend a portrait sketch group. It's two and half hours ( including break times for the model) of a real live person willing to sit still. This is a precious gift.

I love painting portraiture; paintings of  personalities, not replicas of a faces. Portraiture is  beyond accurate facial features. It is a distinctive read of a personality or emotion. In this case it's about serenity, the smile and the colorless eyes in a gaze beyond walls.  Portraiture comes through painting from life, not from photographs. If I work on a painting after the model is gone I  use my memory and impressions to complete the painting. 

Portraiture are paintings I do for myself and only me. I very rarely show them to anyone. I track my skill progress from one painting to the next. I change approaches. I use materials that I do not typically use in my other pieces.  I might even use more brush than pallet knife. I approach each painting differently in order to keep a fresh perspective. This painting was painted directly, without a drawing or an under-painting. I started with the back ground not with the face. The model changed her hair from break time to break time but I didn't chase the hair changes. The changes did not inform the overall feeling which inspired me and the changes would not have been an improvement.