2008 Portrait Society of America Conference
I just returned from the 3-day Portrait Society of America’s 2008 conference in Philadelphia. Why would I attend this conference, given that I am primarily an abstract painter? Well, I also enjoy painting representationally and every once in a while I paint portraits. So I went to the conference looking for some tips, some product information, and most of all for some inspiration. For the most part, the conference fulfilled my expectations.
First, some overall observations. I would guess that there were about 500 attendees at the show (although one speaker mentioned 800 copies of his brochure were printed), and it seemed that perhaps 70% were women. The crowd skewed older, with a large chunk of the audience probably over 50 years old; I think perhaps I was in the 15th percentile age-wise (i.e., 85% of the attendees were older than me). From the relatively small sampling of people I spoke with at the show, attendees came from all over the country (I spoke to artists from Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, and Long Island, for instance.)
On Friday morning, things kicked off with some introductions and then a fine, long demonstration of premier coup (“alla prima”, or “first stroke”) painting by John Howard Sanden. Sanden was well-prepared and his demonstration of putting down the right brushstroke with the right color was effective, clear, and informative. He admits to not being perfect with the technique, where in theory you look at the model, look at your palette, load your brush, look back at the model, and then place the brushstroke on the canvas. His ten tips for the process were: (1) start with a toned canvas; (2) draw with your brush; (3) the 1st stroke is the final stroke; (4) base your marks on observation alone (not what you think it should look like); (5) every stroke counts; (6) use the largest brush possible; (7) work with speed & finish in 1 session; (8) every stroke is a drawing stroke; (9) tonal judgments are the most important; and (10) be deliberate and decisive.
Sanden uses a pre-mixed set of colors for his palette, which he also sells as a set called the “Pro-Mix System”, though fortunately his demo was not a hard sell for his product and the brochure he gave out tells you how to mix his palette yourself if you want.
In the early afternoon, Michael Shane Neal talked about some business practices that he has found helpful in his professional career, focusing on how treating your customers properly and with a formal courtesy (e.g., thank you letters) can pay dividends in the form of future referrals. During his demo, he added to a portrait-in-progress that he’s working on of Sandra Day O’Connor and he brought an example of another judge portrait that he’s finishing up (because the work wasn’t yet varnished, it had a rather uneven surface sheen, but if you caught it in the right light it was a fine painting). Shane is a dynamic and engaging speaker, and though his demo wasn’t as informative as Sanden’s, it was still helpful and worth watching.
The afternoon session, though, with Edward Jonas talking about the anatomical foundation of building a face wasn’t very helpful. It was his first time giving the talk and though he’s a clear speaker and I suspect knows a great deal about facial anatomy, the material wasn’t organized in a way that provided any actionable information to the audience (other than perhaps some book references).
In the evening, Michael Shane Neal addressed a packed room on the subject of John Singer Sargent. Although the day was long and the lights were out during the presentation, Sargent’s amazing portraits and Shane’s passion for the subject matter kept me awake. Shane (and other speakers at the conference) urged viewers to look beyond Sargent’s oft-regarded amazing brushstroke and to consider his color, composition, and especially the emotional understanding of his subjects.
Tags: conference, Portrait Society of America, portraits
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April 15th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Thanks for the commentary on the portrait conference. It was great to read from the perspective of someone who works in abstract art. I was also there and had some similar experiences and opinions. (I preferred to skip the Nelson Shanks worship hour, yawn) Good luck in your art.