The Path to Professionalism
 

I would like to point out what kind of study and dedication it takes to be a real master portrait painter. I plan to post drawings and paintings from various artists showing the best in the field and attempt to explain the effort

Inspiration
 

Thank you, Bill, for this wonderful, awe inspiring post and link to Mims Studio. It took my breath away. The paintings on the Mims website touch a powerful, spiritual chord that I shall return again and again for inspiration. Gratitude seems to be my middle name.

Three brief clarifying (I hope) remarks:

1. This was the product of a heavily critiqued session, from life, many, many, many sessions. I see Jeffrey's hand (not that he works on your piece, much to the chagrin of most students - but that's another topic) and visual intelligence correcting and guiding throughout. However, I have a strong faith that while juvenile, one day my own mind/eye will be able to translate the amazing design of a human head with more profundity.

2. This drawing is not a badge of success: it is a map in the journey. When you work from life (again, another topic I hold as a divine truth), it's a fantastic dialog between light on form and your always growing, artistic intelligence.

3. The common refrain to the level Bill is propelling us all to: human excuses. Kids. Money. Job. Marriage. IRS. You name it. I am no "trust-fund fauxhemian" - I have a day job where I earn under poverty level wages. Regardless, I found someone to study with whose work buckles my knees. The rest of life, always, will be work, misery, and spots of blinding bliss.

And while the results do not always fly, I do trust the work, and that even failing is good, that everytime you fail you get closer to getting it right.

Mari, I'm so glad Bill posted this incredibly beautiful drawing. You have such great sensitivity and skill and this is a feast for all of us who see it.

What knees?
 

Mari,
Your comments were so well expressed, they made MY knees buckle. You write beautifully and profoundly. Your drawing is exquisite. You WILL make it.

A study ( in pencil, chalk, or whatever) ,for me, seems more linked to the heart and soul of the author than a finished painting. Aside from superb mastery of hand-eye coordination (as is evident in this exquisite drawing), a study is also the product of everything else that the author is and wants to be. These two factors are what make this drawing successful. Congratulations, Mari.

Mari, beautiful drawing! I could stare at it for a very long time and keep appreciating something new. I think any artwork, drawing or painting, is more a step in a neverending process rather than a badge of success.

As Bill pointed out, there's going to be more and more competition as realism takes hold as a force in the art world. It's easy to get started. There are a lot of willing customers for inexpensive portraits made directly from photographs. But as you move up in the ranks, the going gets tougher. To create work that is distinctive, original, and expressive at that level takes years of study and practice, and it also takes vision and conviction and humility and self-confidence.

I find this both humbling and inspiring in equal measure, I'm very much looking forward to seeing some more of these posts.

I should be really close by now then!
Seriously though, I couldn't agree more. I think I learn much more from my failures than I do from my successes, but of course, you have to be prepared to learn the lessons.

I know what you're saying about each piece being another step on the journey, another point I agree with whole-heartedly, but the drawing really is beautiful, Mari.

Mari, it has been so wonderful to watch you these past three years!

It's hard to believe you left a wonderful job as a chef to take on the academic art world, but we are certainly glad you did! This drawing just proves it - it is lovely.

Your dedication/drawing is inspiring - just as your supporter - Mr. Whitaker!

Thank you for your kind voices - old friends and new. I knew this thread would not be the coup Mr Whitaker hoped for, but I am willing to sometimes be social if even one artist sees that, yes, Art is being taught and pursued in small studios all over this enormously conflicted modern globe.

It will always be a very small room of people who are interested in this sort of work. Modernity offers too many easy paths to call ourselves artists before we're even crudely competent with charcoal, and because I believe in this training so completely, I know that I'll only have a nostalgic attachment to this drawing in a few years. In fact, the best around me would destroy something so flawed.

I can't wait to see Bill's examples in 10 years, because I'll tell you what, the 14-year-olds who spend summer sessions here - now they are really something to watch.

My feelings exactly. Thank you Bill and Mari.

Excellent thread, excellent work. Many thanks to Bill and Mari both !

Mari, what can one say.
 

The sensitivity of this piece takes my breath away.

It has inspired me to just draw.

You have endowed this face with inner feeling as well as drawing it beautifully.

There is so much trash out there I admire artists like you and Bill who are willing to sacrifice and not compromise to add real treasures to human civilization. It is sometimes a difficult and thankless task.

I hope this is not a digression, but I just came back from a trip around New England. One stop I made was at the Sterling Clark Museum in Williamstown Mass.
They have some of the most exquisite paintings like Tissots, Monets, Degas. I could have just LIVED there.

One painting stunned me with it's unparalleled beauty. It was a Bouguereau., "Nymphes et Satrye". This was a surprise as I am not a real fan of his work. To me this painting was the result of a consummate artist who never took shortcuts. He could not have painted this picture if he did. Anyone that does figurative work should make a pilgrimage see this painting in person. The outrageous DRAUGHMANSHIP! The figures going in and out of the dappled light! The buttery rendering of the skin in all its delicate permutations of color. You felt like they would continue out of the canvas and spill their joyful play onto the floor of the museum.

"Joyful play", indeed! That satyr is outnumbered. It's one small step to Waterhouse's Hylas and the Nymphs... . :)

By the way, this question is for Bourguereau fans: am I correct in thinking that all his figurative work was done in his studio under a skylight? How, exactly, would he have gathered information on his landscapes?

That stinky li'l goat-guy doesn't want a bath! - OK ? And we know Hylas will be in over his head in more ways than one if he goes swimming with those babes. I really, really like both of these.

It's my opinion "Nymphs & Satyr" is Boug's best effort. Somewhere (I don't recall where exactly) I've seen photos of his studio while he was posing models for this piece . . . Linda, I sure can't answer for Bill, but I presume he'd approach the problem logically . . . i.e., plenty of serious observation of outdoor natural lighting in many different circumstances, probably scads of "on scene" sketches and color notes, then control of his studio lighting to suit his purposes.

What I can't imagine is surmounting the extreme difficulty of working "from the life" in natural light outdoors to bring a painting of any size to a higher finish than a mere rapid color sketch. . . sunlight changes incrementally with that minute hand on the clock of course, and with the calendar too. You can't even go back tomorrow (assuming the weather is identical) at the same time of day because the angle of the sun will have changed. These changes are especially radical at the extremes (nearest to dawn & dusk, and around the equinoxes, moreso in northern latitudes). My hat's off to them there "Plenty Airy" folk who paint landscape outdoors from the life . . .