That’s Trish modeling in my Portrait With a Hat class on the cover of the latest class brochure for Newport Art Museum classes.
I set up a boudoir to provide a setting for the vintage silk robe and pants Trish brought, and she styled her hair to complete the pose. Trish is great fun to work with!
The drawing I did of the pose is here.
The Spring 2012 Brochure featuring Trish in my "Portrait With a Hat" class.
Wishing a happy 100th birthday to the Newport Art Museum in 2012, its centennial year!
[caption id="attachment_729" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Portrait of Story, charcoal, 2012"]
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We have had a couple of familiar faces back in Portrait With a Hat lately, doing their usual compelling poses for the class. Here are my two drawings of Trish and Story. Trish wore her hair in braids in a Renaissance manner and combined a print top that worked with the theme. We focused on her profile such as in many portraits done in that period. Story placed sunglasses atop her head and generally evoked summertime in January, for which we were grateful.
As I have become more familiar with these models, I think these likenesses and their fidelity to the subjects has evolved very well. The spirit and character of the person seems to have grown.
It brings to mind questions regarding portraiture and the mediums of photography and painting/drawing. A photograph is considered the more real copy generally, yet the coming to know a subject that occurs through a slower working medium adds a dimension beyond physical realism.
My recent portrait class featured Trish in a period costume of blue silk double breasted jacket with brass buttons and matching trousers.
The Young Patriot, charcoal, 40x32 cm., 2012
A linen shirt and sleeve ruffles completed the costume. Trish tied back her hair for an 18th century look. It first made me think of an English lord, then a patriot due to the blue color, simple style of hair and collar and the direction of her gaze. She looks out and upward rather than down at us.
I then realized we had an ambiguous character before us. A young male, full of enthusiasm, purpose and ideal? Or was this a female who, with those same motivations plus a few more, had donned male garb in order to carry out a male-defined role unavailable to her as a young woman? A colonial spy, perhaps, or a horse-backed messenger shuttling between Washington and Rochambeau.
I also was reminded (back in England) of Gwyneth Paltrow in trousers, pretending to be Thomas Kent, a young actor who takes the part of Romeo in Wil Shakespeare’s new play. Passion, poetry and love fill her soul to the extent that she breaks the Queen’s rule banishing women from acting in the theater, dressing as a young man to carry it off.
Portrait of a Woman in a Silk Robe, conte, 23x16 cm, 2011.
Our model in Portrait With A Hat did not show up with a hat this week. Rather, she wore a vintage silk robe and slippers with an elegant black hair band. We set up a boudoir scene and proceeded to draw in our last class of the year. The folds of silk fabric were an integral part of the pose. It looked great as a full length pose, but I chose to get in closer to the head and face, thus cropping out limbs and feet.
After a hiatus of a year or so, my portrait class with hat (and costume) is up and running again. We got started last night on a simple set up, with model Trish doing one of her fine interpretations. She brought a big bouquet and a silk scarf, black, off white and crimson.
I aim to recreate certain paintings as art historical references during the run of the class, such as “Girl With a Pearl Earring” by Vermeer, a Corot vegetable peeler, the Van Dyck portrait “Lady With a Rose” at the Gardner Museum, and maybe even Manet’s portrait of Berthe Morisot, with her large black hat against an off white background. It will take some organizing to pull these off, so stay in touch as I will post the results here.
And now for Trish, from yesterday.
"Trish Holding a Bouquet", 30x28 cm, 2011.
Woman and Her Chihuahua, charcoal, 2010
In Portrait with a Hat tonight we had a model who posed with her pet Chihuahua named Zootsie. The model wore a fox stole around her neck- no hat- and the dog had a fur stole as well. I did not have my paint box but one of the students said I should be working on this, too. So I rummaged up paper and charcoal and did this 18×24 sketch.
edit: to identify the model as Trish, who is a regular source of inspiration for our class.