Painting From Life

It's easy to forget how essentially beautiful life is, until reminded by looking, finding, and trying to see it.

The model provides surprise from the first question of where to be in relationship to this person, to the very last question of, 'Is this complete? Does it feel right? Does it say enough?'

I photographed my 30 x 42 inch painting at the end of each 2 1/2 hour session, so there are many changes not visible in each digital as strokes were changed and surfaces replaced, but the marks remain as part of the painting's history.


Day 1: Initially, I blocked in the larger forms, covering the whole ground and spending a few hours re-positioning where I felt she was in the space of the room and on my canvas. I mostly attempted to make some prior misunderstood passage, clearer and to define the contrasts between values, temperature, and weight distribution.

Given so much information, what was crucial to me? I searched to understand where there was light and air and where there was flesh and solidity, and because this was such a tactile experience, I wanted the sense of soft and hard visually present. The most minute terrain was becoming of interest over those sessions.



Day 2: Time isn't enough. I could've spent weeks more trying to understand, but as it was, we had committed to five classes of hands on time. Throw in another few hours as I continued working on the space behind and around her when she wasn't present. Not ideal, but practical, given the time constraints.

Through this experience, the model made us aware that the most minor shift in her body position or any change in weather pattern moved things. We had to question what angle her arm was bent, how shadows were falling, where and at what intersection her hand touched her leg, and what it all meant. Those tiny shifts were exciting, because they happened in the moment. They unintentionally encouraged us to think.


Days 3 & 4: I wasn't teaching this class, simply joining in, but as an instructor I frequently suggest looking to the large forms first, ...forget the details, see the form's mass and positioning...no lashes, no freckles, no decorations.
Here I was trying to understand her like everyone else, and finding as I went on, that I saw more intently, and that more was eventually important, down to the mole on her sternum. It isn't that detail in and of itself, is significant, but that the things she wore and the way she wore them, including her body gesture, carried a truth and physicality about her particular spirit, and energy that I responded to.




There's a slowing down and speeding up of time simultaneously that occurs when working from life, an urgency to do and then in counterpoint, the desire to savor, clarify, and reveal.

We forgot ourselves as we painted from her, left everything behind to understand this person through the simple action of applying material, sometimes thin, delicate washes, sometimes thicker, larger strokes, not always agreeable, sometimes too hesitant, too nervous,...but sometimes clear and in their way, magical.


Days 5 & 6: Seeing is not so simple. You have to change with the light and with the model's gesture, you have to let go of the end to find the beginning, you have to be available, curious, responsive, and willing to fail.
Time with the model is time attended to, alert, and in the end, cared for.