Beech Hill 3

Another Beech Hill painting. Or should I call it a "study"? I mean, really, what's the difference?

Aidan

This is Aidan. I've known him since he was a baby. He and my son went to preschool together. I remember taking my son over to his house for a play date one day when they were around 4 and Aidan got in trouble for something and his mom sent him to his room for a "timeout". Two minutes later I saw him running across the lawn in his underwear with a big smile on his face. Four walls couldn't contain him. He had climbed out the window and found freedom.

I did this portrait just a few days before he headed off to college. He's a good guy - smart, kind, athletic, and artistic. But don't let his good looks and calm demeanor fool you - he has a wild side.

12x16 pencil, ink, watercolor and acrylic in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Judy WIP

Getting there....

Nick

This is Nick. You can see the first portrait of Nick that I did a couple of years ago here. You really have to see both of them to get a better sense of Nick's personality.

For this portrait, Nick came over to our house a few days before heading back to college after Christmas break. He sat across from me at our dining room table while I sketched and we talked.

Today I took a photo of my sketch and was trying to decide what else it needed before posting it and I thought back to the first time I really got to hang around Nick. I had just separated from my first wife and Alex (my son) and I had moved into a small cottage that happened to be right next door to Nick's family. Alex and Nick became fast friends and spent a lot of time hanging out together in and around that cottage. We only lived there a year or so and then moved to another house a few blocks away from the cottage. Anyway, I remembered a sketch I did about 10 years ago sitting at the dining table in that little cottage and sketching the view out of the window and I thought that would make a perfect background to Nick's portrait. It took me awhile to find the sketchbook it was in but I did and scanned it into the computer and put it "behind" Nick's portrait digitally. It's a little strange in a twilight zone kind of way but it carries a special meaning for me now, and maybe it will for Nick too.

12x16 Pencil, pen, ink, and watercolor in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Janet

This is Janet. She was one of my mom's best friends from the time they met shortly after my mom moved to Maine in the early nineties until my mom's death in 2008. Whenever I see Janet around town we always stop and talk for awhile and she usually is wearing something that she was either given by my mom when she was alive or that she bought when her estate was sold. She always says something kind about my mom that was meaningful to her and these little connections and her expressions of love mean the world to me (though I don't believe I have ever told her that).

When I asked Janet if I could paint her portrait she said she would be happy to but asked if she could knit while I was painting her. "Of course", I said. She is a doer. Her hands are much prettier than this portrait would suggest but they came out just the way I wanted. Artistic license and all that...

12x16 pencil, watercolor, and acrylic in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Andrew - Part 1

This is Andrew. And this is why I LOVE this phase of Portrait Project. When I approach each friend for the portrait I'm about to do, I have been letting them know that I see these portraits as collaborations and invite their ideas in the making of their portrait. I was especially excited to see Andrew's name come out of the jar because is a creative artist, sculptor, and maker of interesting things so I was pretty sure he would have some ideas on the making of his portrait.

We met at his studio, which is in a large steel warehouse that has been partitioned into studios and workspaces where artists, sculptors, metalworkers, cabinetmakers, an architect, and a builder work separately on their own projects but also share a common bathroom, kitchen, meeting area, and woodshop tools. We talked about the portrait and Andrew came up with an idea of using a multi-plane canvas. I'm not really sure that's the right term but I'm also not entirely sure how this portrait is going to finally turn out. Andrew suggested I work out 2 portraits - one of half his face straight-on and the other at a 3/4 view - and then he would do the rest. "Sounds good to me", I said. Then he cut 2 panels, slapped some gesso on them and dried the panels with a heat gun. Then I got to work sketching and spraying and finger painting as fast as I could go because we both had other things to get to that day. This morning I threw a little more paint on and took some photos. Tomorrow, I'll drop them off at his shop and he'll finish them up. Can't wait to post the final piece!

Pencil, acrylic, and inks on 1/2" MDF.

To see the first portrait I did of Andrew for the Portrait Project 250 series, go here.

Sully

This is Sully. He and my son have been friends since they were young kids. Now he's in college in Colorado and skis whenever he can get some time off. A couple of years I did his portrait from a photo as part of the Portrait Project 250 series that you can see here. This past Christmas break he stayed with us for a few days and I was able to do his portrait one afternoon. 

Fire in the Hole

Don't you know
There's fire in the hole
And nothing left to burn
I'd like to run out now
There's nowhere left to turn
- Steely Dan

Frances

Frances, but clearly not...

Liza - runner up version

This one didn't make the final cut but I like it.

Jonathan

This is Jonathan. In this portrait he looks like a maverick visionary or movie star. Speaking of movies, I get to hang out with Jonathan this weekend at the Camden International Film Festival. Can't wait.

18"x24" graphite and ink. #91

Elizabeth

This is Elizabeth. She's an urban sketching friend and she lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

This is my largest portrait so far. I put myself in the photo to give it some scale. It doesn't feel finished to me but it has a freshness that I like. I plan to come back and work on it some more. I'll post a final one if I do.

5'x6' spray paint and acrylic.

Scout

This is Scout. She looks so peaceful here in this portrait but it's a contradiction.

When I first saw her she was on stage performing at the piano and I was sketching the musicians. I thought "great, a piano player. Maybe I can get a good sketch. Piano players don't move near as much as guitar players do, right?" Wrong. She was all over the place belting out her song. Legs flying every which way. I just put down my pencil and watched in amazement. This girl can sing AND play AND dance. She not only feels the music - she IS the music.

10"x17" Acrylic and spray paint on canvas.

Gabi

This is Gabi. He is the founder of the "Urban Sketching" movement sweeping the world. Well, perhaps that's overstating it but he is at the epicenter of a large movement in sketching. In 2008 I started sketching passionately and as I was looking for inspiration I stumbled on a number of blogs of people posting their sketches of the cities they lived in. One of the first blogs I found was Gabi's, where he posted the sketches he was doing in and around Seattle, Washington as a sketch journalist for the Seattle Times.

Sometime in late 2008 he had the bright idea to start a blog that organized about 100 sketchers from all over the world. It has a huge following now. Their motto is "See the world one drawing at a time." All of this has led to him writing a book called "The Art of Urban Sketching" and putting on international sketching conferences. I went to a conference in 2012 with my son and got to meet Gabi and many of the artists that inspired me as I began sketching.

He is such a nice, easy going guy also and I can't imagine a better ambassador for promoting sketching as a way to see and understand the world we live in.

10"x16" pencil, ink 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.

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.

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.

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.

Salvador

This is Salvador. He is an urban sketching friend and he lives in Guatemala.