Jonathan - Alternate

This is an earlier version of the Jonathan painting - just for kicks.

Michael

This is Michael. I have known him for almost 10 years. We worked in the same building downtown for a few years. I saw him at the end of October last year walking down the street I live on wearing this overcoat and sunglasses. I had just pulled into our driveway so we stopped and talked for about 10 minutes. He told me he really liked a painting I had posted and he told me about his love of art and photography which I hadn't known about until then. Shortly after we became FB friends and shortly after that he recommended me to a friend of his for a painting commission. He's as cool as he looks.

12"x24" Graphite and watercolor.

Jonathan

This is Jonathan. He is a cyclist friend but he is also an amazing illustrator. His work has been in all the big magazines and posters of his have been plastered all over Paris. He is really good. I don't see him near as often as I would like to. Every now and then we run into each other in town and talk for 20 or 30 minutes on the sidewalk and then we don't see each other until the next time it happens. Do you have friends like that?

18"x24" Oil on Canvas.

Roy

This is Roy. I met him about 5 years ago when I took a trip to Thailand. He lives in Canada with his wife Bonnie. What a fun couple they are...

12"x16" Ink, pencil and watercolor.

Emily

This is Emily. She is one of my clients AND she is a great friend - a nice combination. She is super cute too, which you would never know from this portrait, but I think this captures her well - her adventurous spirit, love of Maine, ability to position herself in just the right place, an anchor in the community, and a loving mother to her children. All of this under an artfully woven braid of fiery red hair.

12"x24" watercolor, ink, graphite and pencil.

Kristi

This is Kristi. I met her through yoga a few years ago - she teaches. She's also kind of an Earth Goddess Hippy cool chick - a sort of Joni Mitchell for her generation. I don't really know that for sure - it's just how I see her.

9"x15" watercolor, pencil and Artrage.

Maureen

This is Maureen. We were in a week long workshop last year with Joseph Zbukvic, a master water-colorist from Brisbane, Australia.

18"x24" Acrylic and impasto on Canvas.

Heather

This is Heather. I have been friends with her and her husband for over 10 years. A few years ago she joined an oil painting class I had been taking and I watched her go from drawing simple shapes to detailed portraits in a matter of weeks. Amazing.

12"x16" watercolor

Tao 41

The wise student hears of the Tao and practices it diligently.

The average student hears of the Tao and gives it thought now and again.

The foolish student hears of the Tao and laughs aloud.

If there were no laughter, the Tao would not be what it is.

Hence it is said:

The bright path seems dim;

Going forward seems like retreat;

The easy way seems hard;

The highest Virtue seems empty;

Great purity seems sullied;

A wealth of Virtue seems inadequate;

The strength of Virtue seems frail;

Real Virtue seems unreal;

The perfect square has no corners;

Great talents ripen late;

The highest notes are hard to hear;

The greatest form has no shape;

The Tao is hidden and without name.

The Tao alone nourishes and brings everything to fulfillment.

Cathy and Tamara

This is Cathy and Tamara. I met them last year rafting down the Futaleufu River in southern Chile. They travel all over the world rafting rivers in Nepal, Africa, South America, Costa Rica... And when beer thirty rolls around, these ladies know how how to have fun.

12"x24" watercolor and spray paint.

Lucia

This is Lucia. Yesterday was her birthday so this is sort of a happy belated birthday sketch. Lucia and I met in college where we both studied architecture. Her friends became my friends and my friends became her friends and eventually we had a big friendfest and would gather often on the weekends.

Anyway, after college we both ended up in Austin, Texas and teamed up with a few other folks to form a group called The Sustainable Building Coalition. This group met once a month to discuss and promote principles and practices of environmentally friendly and energy efficient building design and construction. Now she's the Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Austin. A pretty cool woman.

8"x10" watercolor in my Grand Portrait Sketchbook.

Maria

This is Maria. I dated her daughter for a couple of years when I was in college so we got to know each other pretty well. Until I did this portrait I never realized how much they look alike. I think this portrait works for me because I see both of them in it.

This is my first (maybe my last) watercolor on Yupo, a synthetic smooth paper that receives paint much differently than any other paper I have used. 

11"x14" pencil and watercolor with Artrage.

Bill

This is Bill. I met him through a group of road cyclists that have been meeting every Saturday morning for the last few years at The Bagel Cafe in Camden. We ride a loop that is about 34 miles long and has one sprint about midway through the ride and one climb near the end. Bill was really good about organizing the ride, letting new riders know the route and keeping everyone together. He would post on Facebook just about every week with a simple "who's in?" on the night before the ride and then taunt the rest of us with smack talk about how he was going to take the sprint that week. Bill doesn't do this ride much anymore because he moved to another town. I miss riding with him.

Bill is portrait #50 in The Portrait Project - a sort of milestone for me. Only 200 portraits to go...

12"x16" watercolor.

Lindsay

This is Lindsay. I worked with her and her husband on the design of an art center they built in Hope, Maine. 

12"x16" watercolor and pencil with lots of Artrage.

Brad

This is Brad. I met him in Chile last year. He was on his honeymoon with Lindsey. I posted her portrait a couple of weeks ago. Seems like I am posting a friend a week from that trip down the Futaleufu in Chile. Brad could be a model with his good looks.

12"x24" watercolor, marker, and spray paint.

Jamie

This is Jamie. She is a really talented oil painter. I met her a few years ago when I took an oil painting class with Ronald Frontin, a master in the medium. She was painting really cool stuff and I was struggling with the newbies drawing bricks with charcoal. I don't paint much with oils these days but I have been wanting to do an oil portrait and Jamie provided the perfect inspiration.

12"x17" Oil on Canvas.

Jorge

This is Jorge. He is an urban sketching friend and he lives near Buenos Aires, Argentina. My wife and I visited him a couple of years ago while we we were touring Argentina and Chile. We had a nice afternoon of sketching together and then went back to his house and hung out with his lovely family and friends and had a traditional Argentinean barbecue.

5"x7". I sketched this in my Grand Portrait Handbook journal and added color to it in Artrage. I attempted it using the cross hatching technique that Jorge is famous for.

Laurel

This is Laurel. I first met her when she was 4 years old. I offered her a chocolate brownie at a gathering of friends. She said; "No thank you' I don't eat chocolate." "What?!!", I thought, "a four year old that doesn't eat chocolate!?"

I met her beautiful and divorced mother later that day and we fell in love. We were together for a few years but life and circumstances pulled us in different directions. Fortunately, Laurel and I still keep in touch through the magic of Facebook.

9"x6" Watercolor, gouache, and spray paint on Fluid watercolor paper with Artrage.

Holly

This is Holly. She's a local newshound and a beekeeper. Her Facebook posts are usually entertaining and her news stories are always well written. I have a fantasy that one day she'll write a story about The Portrait Project and it will go viral and I will instantly become famous.

12"x16" Watercolor and pencil on Fluid watercolor paper.

Will

This is Will. He's my nephew and today is his birthday! He's a photographer and creative guy and he lives in Brooklyn, NY.

12"x16" watercolor, gouache, acrylic and spray paint on Fluid watercolor paper.

Patrick

This is Patrick. He went to Montessori with my son when they were 3 and 4 years old and they remain friends to this day. I used to pick up Alex from school and sometimes I would take Patrick and drop him off at a day care place. Since it was around lunchtime, Patrick would often eat in the car as we drove and I would feed Alex when we got home. Patrick always offered half his sandwich to Alex. Every time he did I would explain that Alex was going to eat soon and that he should eat his sandwich. His generosity impressed me.

8"×10" watercolor, pencil, and ps touch.