Charles Reid at Burford - Second demonstration - Portraits

The second demonstration that Charles set up was a portrait session and unusually he declared that he was going to produce two portraits, one profile and another in three quarter view. As always the session started with Charles producing a contour drawing. During this segment we were to listen to many sound tips in relation to making the original drawing. 

"Begin by putting down a light oval shape to delineate the placement of the head.

Draw a line around the curve of the oval to mark the line around which the central features are arranged.

Start the detailed drawing at the eyes or nose and relate everything back to them.

Place mouth with dot relating to the eye.

Many people make noses too long, beware of this.

Keep stopping and checking whilst keeping the pencil on the paper. 

Draw in shadow shapes".

Initial Drawing - note shadow shape beside left eye and small demo of an eye at top

"Begin painting  around centre and put in dark shapes.

Draw in shapes with the point of the brush then soften them".

Charles spent some time showing the choices he makes to produce his flesh tones and shadow shades, these can be seen at the bottom of the sheet. The colours will vary according to the individual's complexion. Simply they consist of Cadmium Red Light with a yellow from Cadmium Yellow Light, Raw Sienna and sometimes Burnt Sienna. The addition of a blue creates the shadow and the choice is judged by the value required, Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine being his choices, light to dark.

Profile - Charles Reid, watercolour on half sheet

Charles then moved onto the second view of the model with the same routine in terms of drawing.
In this picture it is easier to see some of his construction lines in this picture. Note the line delineating the central features and the arc across the eyes. You can also see the oval placed to indicate the nose position. Most of these lines are reduced by eraser so that they are lighter than pictured here but many are not removed altogether.

Three Quarters view - Drawing

Initial washes

Sheet layout

Three Quarter view completed

In the above photograph you can see the notes that Charles appended. Here he emphasised the technique he uses next to highlights. The hard edge next to the highlight is placed and keeping the brush on the paper the pigment is worked away then softened.

Two Portraits - Watercolour on half sheet by Charles Reid

Annual Trip to BP Portrait Exhibition

Every year I make a trip to London to meet up with an old friend of mine and to visit the BP Portrait Competition that is hung at the National Portrait Gallery. I think it would be fair to say that my friend, Graham, and myself are  not short of some strongly held opinions and this exhibition usually gives us the opportunity to express them. In that respect this year's renewal was no disappointment.

Our routine is to independently view the pictures then meet up to share our feelings about what we have seen. This year there were a number of themes to our discussion. First of all is the matter of technique, there being a significant number of photo realistic works where evidence of a painter's hand was difficult to discern. Secondly, there was only one picture in the exhibition where the subject had even the semblance of a smile and thirdly the question of what constitutes a portrait.

Let's look at some of these issues. The first picture here is one that epitomises the technical issue. The quality of technique in this painting is jaw dropping in terms of paint application and drawing. Would that I could even conceive of acquiring such skill. The detail everywhere on this canvas is fabulous but it does pose the question of how does it differ from a well taken photograph?

Mr. Lascelle Barrow - Aurelio Rodriguez

The next picture again is another realistic piece but this one poses another question. The clue is in the title. Salmacis No. 3, tells us that this is probably one from a series of pictures. It also includes a name in the title that may or may not mean anything to the viewer. This was probably the reason that the curator felt the need to append a paragraph to the picture's label making reference to the Greek myth of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus. The question then became one of how did this picture convey issues arising from that myth? This is where it is easy to level the charge of pretension at the curator. To be fair to the artist I made a search on arrival home to find out if there was anything to substantiate the irritating text on the wall of the NPG. Here I found images which were part of the series indicated by the number in the title. Placed in that context the image began to make sense, something that didn't happen with the single image on the wall.

Le (Salmacis No. 3) - Ivan Franco Fraga

I am going to leave the rest of this post for the reader to think upon rather than visit the prejudices of Graham and myself upon you. This selection of paintings were ones that we found of particular interest, all of which show the hand of the painter in one way or another. I'll leave you with these and the question of what constitutes a portrait?

The Postman - Frances Bell

Portrait of Anita Bell in her studio - Agata Wojcieszkiewicz

Today You Were Far Away - Ian Cumberland

The Dialects of Silence (Portrait of Michael Longley) - Colin Davidson

Joachim - Nathan Ford

Paul Ruddock - Eileen Hogan

Jane - Leo Holloway

Tony - Elizabeth Thayer

Footnote: On retiring to the nearest hostelry we came to the conclusion that once again the judges had got it wrong and were deserving of our opprobrium for their selection of so many portraits that failed to move us.

Gallery Trip 2

One of the most eagerly awaited shows this year has been the Lucian Freud - Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. This was my other main objective this week. I can say little other than it blew me away. To see the wonderful, passionate, dense and intense images from the brushes of this hugely talented painter was a huge pleasure. Other than occasional showings of small numbers of images I've not seen so many Freuds in one place since the show at the Hayward Gallery in 1998.

In his introduction to the catalogue for the Hayward exhibition, Robert Hughes compares the chosen artistic path of Freud with other contemporaries whose work was more reflective of the mass media of the day. A comparison that, for some, was a reason to demean the works of Freud. Hughes, however, takes a different view, "Painting is, one might say, exactly what mass visual media are not: a way of specific engagement, not of general seduction". "Everywhere, and at all times, there is world to be re-formed by the darting subtlety and persistent slowness of the painter's eye".

The selection below are drawn from the exhibition and are broadly in chronological order. It was a deliberate decision of mine to leave out many of the more explicit pictures, for no other reason than I know that some followers find that sort of work challenging. That doesn't reflect my own view.

Freud's subject matter often involved his wives, children, friends and often invited interpretation of an autobiographical narrative. This is never more true than in Hotel Bedroom.

Girl in Beret - Lucian Freud

Girl with a White Dog - Lucian Freud

Girl in Bed - Lucian Freud

Hotel Bedroom - Lucian Freud

For artists interested in technical matters, there is a decided shift in style takes place when it is clear that Freud has moved from using sable brushes with their soft, fine application of pigment and capacity to render the finest detail and begin applying his paint with the much more robust bristle brushes. With that change texture becomes much more significant in his practice and is used particularly in his presentation of human flesh.

The portrait is the essential core of Freud's work and his portraits are like no one else's. He eschews many of the more traditional portraitist's techniques. This is no more apparent than with the way he depicts eyes. As my friend Graham remarked when viewing the exhibition there is little eye contact for the viewer, in the majority of cases the gaze of the sitter is elsewhere. Freud's interest seems to be in the relationship between flesh and paint, "As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does".

Self Portrait - Lucian Freud

Self Portrait - Lucian Freud

Reflection with Two Children (Self Portrait) - Lucian Freud

Two Irishmen - Lucian Freud

David Hockney - Lucian Freud

The Brigadier - Lucian Freud

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping - Lucian Freud