Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown
 

Here's one of my recent portaits of a husband-wife team at work. Robert Venturi is an architect and Denise Scott Brown is an urban planner. Together they have designed many major (and often controversial) buildings in various countries and have written many books on their ideas.

I began this portrait by observing them at work, in their conference room, which seemed to be the best setting for a portrait. The walls are covered with posters of their projects. One of their major themes is finding beauty in ordinary, even tacky, architecture like gas stations and MacDonald's twin arches. You can see why their ideas are controversial. The title of one of their books, Complexity and Contradiction, kept coming to mind, and I decided to make that the theme of the painting.

I sketched them on two occasions, once while they met with their office manager and once while they were being interviewed. Both times, I noticed that Bob usually wrote notes on a yellow pad while Denise did most of the talking. Once in a while he interjected a comment. I checked this out with them, and they agreed this was characteristic of their dynamic. They also wanted to be seated at the table.

Denise has spent a significant part of her career striving to be recognized as Bob's equal partner, and this is an issue that also concerns Bob, so I thought about a way to arrange them in the composition so that they had equal billing, so to speak. Bob is slightly forward, but more to the side, while Denise is back farther but more toward the center.

I set up a couple of appointments for doing oil sketches, but each timer they turned out to be too busy to sit still for an hour, so I finally decided to go ahead and photograph them. This has been happening a lot to me lately with very busy/famous people--I guess I need to learn how to be more assertive! But I made lots of color notes and they were very helpful.

Just Beautiful Alex! Love your use of color here!. . . and you've created a real sense of this couple, engaging, busy and full of life. Looking at the painting I feel as if I know them. :)

Oh the gentleman's lips! They look exactly as I remember my grandfather. A loose weight with a rounded turn! Made me very nostalgic. What a fond memory you just threw at me this morning!

Dear Alex,

Beautiful job! You are SO good with these complex designs, wonderfully interlaced - those little rectangles of strong color on the table really command the viewer's eye movement.

Lovely, expressive brushwork.

Terrific composition, and a GREAT feel for space and "air."
Also character.

Best--TE

Wow, Alex! This is outstanding! I love the high key colors and your wonderful brushwork.

Thanks for sharing your process for composing your work, too. It's very inspiring.

Thank you all! Your comments are very much appreciated and respected, as you are all wonderful artists.

Terri--I'm glad the painting somehow makes you feel you know them. I wanted to portray them as very approachable and informal, but at the same time as professionals, and that can be a tricky thing.

Debra--I had such a time getting his mouth just right! But in the end it is really his, so I'm glad its idiocyncracies reminded you of your grandfather.

Chris--thank you. I knew I had to include the busy stuff on the table or it wouldn't look like their office. The books I added later (including the title Complexity and Contradiction on top of the pile) because the papers everywhere began to have too much sameness, and I felt there needed to be something with greater weight and darker value in the right bottom corner. The compositions come to me as a whole in my mind, and I'm very flattered that you think I do a decent job with this type of thing because it always feels like such a gamble.

Tom--I really appreciate that you feel the "air." There was so much color and pattern, I was very worried about nailing the subltety of the difference between the values in the foreground compared to those in the background. And thanks, I'm glad their character comes across.

Cindy--It's good to know you like the colors. It was the first time I felt that I succeeded reasonably well at such a high-key busy composition. The clothing was a combination of outfits from two different days. Actually I got a kick out of the pink/blue theme because it's the feminine/masculine theme.

Oh Alex, what an orchestra of colours you have so masterfully played here, and a really well thought out composition.
I love the invitation into the painting, that sheet of paper on the table, but there are a lot of interesting shapes and diagonals, and...
there's so much in here!
Ilaria

Oh, hi, Ilaria, I almost missed your post! Thank you so much. The papers and folders on the table were a lot of fun. They even use a color-coded system of post-it notes that fit right in with the color scheme. Diagonals are one of my favorite things to play with, maybe one of those things that carries over from early childhood. My mother has always been interested in geometry, and I used to listen to her talking about how triangulation strengthened things, so I guess it got into my painting somehow.

Alex,
this is such a sweet painting, everything is color. Look how all colors are reflected in the table, wonderful.

Allan

You set the bar high!
 

Awesomely inspiring! Everything about the painting gives the feeling of such competence...both of the artist and the subjects!

This is beautiful, Alex! I love the subtle directionals in the composition and the way you have placed all these wonderful fresh colors. It makes the viewer feel as if this were a table which welcomes him/her. I often find portraits of couples to be difficult to manage and your idea of being engaged in work on a common table is an excellent device.

This is a stunner! I am so impressed.

Thank you Allan, Carol, Linda and Kim! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support and encouragement.

The colors were quite a departure for me. I'm so glad you approve. I tried to balance the bright pinks, yellows and blues with some darks and greys, keeping the chroma more intense towards the foreground.

Here are some of the sketches I did with notes. I don't know if you can see them too well this small. They are not very good likenesses but my subjects are moving while I'm sketching so it's worse than doing a ten-second gesture sketch as far as likeness is concerned, but I try to get the essence and the gestures, things like that.

VERY nice work! The creative and natural composition is so refreshing. I also like the high key colors.

Can you tell us how big this is, who commissioned it and where it will hang? Also, can you post more closeups (hands, folders, background etc.)?

Michele , thank you! I'm glad you like the color. The playfulness of their architecture seemed to ask for this kind of color scheme.

Sorry I forgot to post the dimensions--it is 28" x 38".

It was not a commissioned work, but part of a project I am doing to help Philadelphia's arts community get more recognition, and support the arts by fundraising with revenue generated by the sale of the portraits. The Venturis are donating the portrait to the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania.

Thanks for reminding me to give a littlle more background, Michele.

Here are a few closeups:

Nice, nice, nice!

Thanks, Michele :)

Alex - this is gorgeous! You are so talented & I learn so much from your post.

Alex,
this is great! For me this portrait is about joy : the quiet joy of this couple working together, the joy of those beautiful colors, and the delight you seemed to have painting this!
All this ,sustained by a subtle (but strong) composition.
It's very nice to see that such a serious subject can finally look so simple and joyful!

Thank you, Patti! Thank you, Marina! Your comments mean a lot to me.

Alex, this a beautiful painting. I really like how you meticulously composed the two to give them equal importance, just wonderful.

casey

Thank you, Casey! As I said, I was contemplating the theme of "complexity and contradiction" when I saw them as different but equal.

Another thing I forgot to mention was that I arranged them so they are slightly overlapping. I wanted to show their connection but express their strong individuality at the same time. Another way in which the theme comes into play.

Bravo, dear Alex!

Well for the architecture and exquisite urban design of a great canvas, you're the best! As others have said, this is a chromatic and spacial tour-de-force. You really captured the Venturi-Scott-Brown's to a real sense of their gentle and yet intensively creative nature.

I can say this because I "met" them at that last annual juried show opening at Woodmere (Art Museum, where they are engaged to design the new wing expansion). I saw them there in the crowd, and actually said hi, in passing. I "knew" them through your portrait in progress at the time. How's that! Then I immediately hunted you down at the opening so excited to tell you that your acclaimed subjects were in the house (Alex gets into all the good art shows)! Like any other celebrities, you can "know" them while they have no clue who you are.

Again, Bravo. You captured them perfectly, based on my momentary encounter.

Garth

Garth, thank you for the over-the-top compliments! It's really nice to know I captured their likenesses well enough that you recognized them at the Woodmere opening. (By the way, speaking of art shows, I seem to recall that you get into them, too!) That was a fun evening at the Woodmere, and I was so surprised to see the Venturi-Scott Browns there after just seeing them in a totally different context.

Dear Alex,

What a beautiful painting! It makes me feel like I have been able to tip toe into a room lit by sun light , sharing the quietness and harmony that exists between two people, who have known each other for ages.

Thanks so much, Enzie. The idea of just happening on people in the midst of their work or play or whatever they are doing is something I've always been interested in portraying. I see this as one way portraits border on figurative work.