A new portrait

I have recently completed the portrait if a judge. Judge B. has been a fantastic sitter, extremely keen to take part into the process and very available for life sittings.
His sons commissioned this portrait for his retirement after seeing my painting "The Russian Lady" ( read about it here )at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Show. He told me he appreciated its expression and that he chose me because of my loose style,"not too specific", he said.
We had two appointments to discuss the painting before starting. These conversations were particularly useful for me to observe him and understand what he expected. We discussed the size of the canvas and his attire, whether or not he should wear his wig. We agreed that wigs make people difficult to recognize, but that it was important to mention it.
The object itself by the way, is something I would love to paint in a still life.
I stretched some pre-primed linen and chose a format that would allow me some lateral space to include the wig.
Judge B. naturally sat leaning slightly toward his left. Because of the strong graphic impact of the robe, I believed I did not need to do much about the design. I started by placing his right eye on the vertical midline. This is an important compositional device valid since Renaissance and helps establishing the dominant eye.



I tried to keep a minimal tilt of the head. Judge B. is a phenomenal communicator and chatted amiably during our time together. I wanted to render the relaxed atmosphere of our sittings although this is a rather formal portrait. His slight smile is a very natural expression for him, which he had at all times.



I used a chromatic palette, no earth colours apart from Ivory Black, and tried to include areas of thin and thick paint. The most intensive painting activity occurs in the head and collar, while the background, chair and wig are very loosely rendered.
I am satisfied with the result and the Judge seems to be very happy about it.

The mysterious smile

I recently had the chance of working again with Tatiana, a beautiful russian model who features in my painting " The Russian Lady".
I think I painted Tatiana's portrait over the course of just one session. I used a small canvas I had stretched, sized and primed with lead primer. I normally used pre-primed linen but that canvas was a leftover from a few months earlier, when I had made a batch, and was the first one handy that day.

The painting has been very successful: it was selected for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Show this year and was one of the first paintings sold at the opening. It also yielded commissions for three more portraits.
I think that part of its success depends on Tatiana's expression. While I was painting I wondered how it was possible for her to keep that slight smile for so long.

Smiling is something we are very used to in photos, but its appearance in portraits can be tricky.
Antonia S. Byatt, in an essay about portraiture, said that a photographic portrait is often about a fleeting moment frozen in time, unrepeatable, therefore ultimately about death. A painted portrait for Byatt incorporates the concept of a longer time, its thoughtful creation a deep research on personality and human essence, so really about life instead.

Here is where the problem of the smile in portraits lies for me, in that its fugitive nature does not allow a long investigation. But when I painted Tatiana the smile she started with just remained there unchanged, and with the same intense look, for the whole session.

This week I had the chance of painting her again and we had time to chat. Tatiana told me that she is an instructor of Health Qigong, a chinese practice that is extremely beneficial for the organism. As a former Tai Chi student, I immediately understood the origin of the smile. Qigong uses meditation and breathing to channel the qi (energy), and allows a very powerful control of the body.
Tatiana has explained to me that while sitting she practices Qigong and tries to reach a state of total relaxation. Her smile originates from the deep relaxation of the muscles of the face. I think it is like the smile of Buddha; while practicing Tai Chi I too have been taught to keep a smile when performing the movements.
I believe that the appeal of her portrait lies with the deep serenity of her expression and I am happy to have unveiled the mystery !

It took quite a while but my website is working again !

I had to learn about CNAME, DNS setting, whois website, etc... Three weeks offline; it serves me well for the assumption I was able to do everything on my own without seeking professional help.
Still I have made the transfer work somehow and that feels also very good.
So please do visit from time to time, I will add a couple of new paintings next week.
WWW.ILARDT.COM

Website

My website will be offline for a few days while I complete the transfer to another provider.
Everything regarding web hosting is terribly complicated for me, hopefully I won't have to change domain.

Following Piero della Francesca/2

With a little delay this post is about the last day of my summer trip.
Urbino is fabulous. We went for a walk in the evening and found out that Palazzo Ducale opened in the morning at 8.30 so the next day were the first visitors, and the guards were opening each rooms as we came in.
What an experience to be alone with the paintings. There are two masterpieces by Piero in Urbino, and they share the same room.



The Madonna di Senigallia was a complete surprise for me, I think I overlooked it while browsing through Piero's paintings.
It's elegance and balance are stunning.
The draping, jewels and the little basket on the upper right corner are all executed with chilling realism, while the heads are idealized and pure. I feel that this painting is visually very much about the position of the heads and their relative size.
I spent a long time staring at it and taking in its vertical and horizontal rhythm, the chiaroscuro barely hinted at, the perfection of the simple blue and red colour scheme.



"La Flagellazione" is one of the most famous paintings of Piero, and it's size is quite a surprise, only 58x81 cm. Small size for an immense work. Enough has been said about it's elusive meaning. Standing in front of this work as a painter I was wondering what it was I was connecting with.
I think that the absence of strong passion, of movement is what I liked. The flagellation is stilled in mid air, Christ is just looking at his torturer, the man in the black hand is making a gesture as if to quiet the action.
This perfect harmony of stillness is something I always found appealing in painting. The composition here is so perfect that it is impossible the action will ever begin again, that time would re-start.
Is it the use of geometry and mathematics that imparts this sublime balance to the painting? Does the regular rhythm of the darks help, or the simple three values scheme?
These are all elements I will have to remember when I work.

PS: Sir Charles Locke Eastlake opted not to buy the painting for Queen Victoria in 1858 because of some features which offended his taste, notably the thick ankles !

Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2009

The list of selected paintings has just been published. I scroll down... and here's my name !
I am so happy to have made the selection again. Every time that I take part into juried shows it's an agony. One brings his works at the venue and you find yourself in a queue. This year the place where the selection took place was a large hall in Kensington. I arrived on the morning of the first day: paintings were placed on the floor all along the walls, and my pictures were already in the third row.
Looking at the list of entries I can't fail to notice that the numbers go up to 1195.
I was confident about the work I submitted, but there is always a doubt on whether the judges will take the time to look carefully, come close, really close. Among more than a thousand works will they spot my rather small portrait?
It seems like they did. I am sorry to brag but I am just over the moon.
Please do take the time to look closely at the painting too by visiting my website page and clicking on the picture for a high resolution image.

Following Piero della Francesca/detour

From Sansepolcro we headed toward Citta' di Castello, further down along the Tiber valley. There isn't any painting by Piero there, but two interesting museums devoted to Alberto Burri.
Burri is a painter and sculptor who died in 1995. Originally a physician who took part in WW II, he started to paint during his time as a POW in the States.
His paintings were made with different materials of which he highlighted the qualities.



He sewed and painted on raw canvas, he etched and combusted wood, ignited cellophane etc. In the series "Cretti" he explored the texture of dry clay grounds.




The latest works have a smooth surface and are more about design and interaction of shapes and colours.






Burri has two dedicated museums in Citta' di Castello. One is in town housed in the historical Palazzo Albizzini.
The Albizzini family had a dedicated chapel in the church of San Francesco. It is here where the Sposalizio della Vergine by Raffaello was originally located. Raffaello's painting is now in the core room of the Accademia di Brera in Milan, where it hangs literally side to side with Piero's Madonna and Child with Saints ( I was there earlier this year).




The first museum holds a selection of pieces by Burri displayed chronologically.
The most striking place to visit though is the second center belonging to the Fondazione Burri. The building is a former tobacco drying plant. I think it is the largest space ever dedicated to a single artist in the world: 7500 sqm, it is simply huge. A part was given to Burri for free in 1978, and it is now completely occupied by his work.
His paintings, seen in the monumental and austere industrial setting, acquire an impressive status and a strong spirituality.



Somehow the visit to Burri's museums fit in with Piero. His geometry, his attention to the design and partition of the canvas, his earthy colours, golds and vivid reds resonate of Piero's works.

Next stop, Urbino.