Monday, June 20, 2016

Alan


This is Alan. I first met him about 12 years ago when he called me looking for an architect/designer to help him renovate a building out in Montville, Maine that he was developing into an artists retreat. We worked on the design for a few weeks but he ultimately decided (wisely, I think) to put his energy and vision into creating Waterfall Arts, a contemporary community art center in Belfast, Maine that has been instrumental in helping to cultivate a thriving art scene in the Midcoast.

8.5"x14" watercolor and pencil with Artrage. #250





Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Kate #2



This is Kate - again. This is the other portrait I was working on at the same time I was working on the last portrait I posted. She looks like a model here. I imagine what was really going on is she was goofing around with her friends and she struck a classic model pose and after the photo was snapped she broke into laughter.

This was a pencil drawing that felt unfinished to me for a few days. I was thinking about adding color and came across a facebook post of a color wheel done in watercolor by my friend Jessie Chapman - an architect and artist living in Virginia. It was posted on Sunday with #love and I understood it to be about the shooting in Orlando. It represents the solidarity/love that many of us feel with the LGBT community right now. And it seemed right for Kate's portrait.

11x17 Pencil in my huge Moleskine sketchbook with Artrage.#249.5

Friday, June 10, 2016

Kate


This is Kate. She and my son were classmates when they went to Montessori fifteen years ago. She was an adorable girl then and has grown to become a beautiful young woman in so many ways. I made two portraits of her because I couldn't decide which photo to use. I worked on them both at the same time in my huge Moleskine sketchbook, flipping back and forth. It was kind of interesting doing it that way because she was a few years younger in the photo I worked off of for this portrait but my portrait makes her look a few years older - closer to the way she looks in the other portrait I was drawing - closer to the way she looks now.

I wrote "u are free" all over her face. This was a phrase that got stuck in my brain when I was in Nepal recently. It's not entirely random that I wrote it on her but I also don't know exactly why I did - I could say that about so many of the things I do to these portraits. I am aware she has visited Nepal and has an affinity for the people there and that part of the world. For me, "u are free" became a mantra of sorts. Something I would think about from time to time. Am I free? What does it mean to be free? Are any of us really free? I saw it written in spray paint on a brick wall on the drive from the airport in Kathmandu to my hotel. A simple piece of graffiti that got stuck in my brain and now it's a value for Kate's portrait. If you have any thoughts about this portrait or the phrase "u are free" I would love for you to comment.

11x17 pencil in my huge Moleskine sketchbook. #249