Everett Raymond Kinstler portrait demo

Yesterday I traveled to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts to watch how a master paints an oil portrait. The three-hour event was offered in connection with the exhibition: “Everett Raymond Kinstler: Pulps to Portraits.”

Although I had a seat up front, I couldn’t see much of the canvas, so instead I sketched Mr. Kinstler from the back. Wearing his blue smock, he held his big wooden palette, with the easel and model directly beyond him. 

When he signed my little sketch later, he wrote, with characteristic humor and modesty, “Jim: You’ve captured my best angle.”

As he proceeded to lay in the light and shadow shapes on the blue-gray toned canvas, he regaled the audience with hilarious stories about his encounters with famous subjects such as Katherine Hepburn, Theodore Geisel, and Eric Sloane. 

Mr. Kinstler’s model, Lila Berle, posed under a high spotlight set for a three-quarter “Rembrandt short” scheme with a second light flooding the ceiling to provide a fill light for the model and a working light for the artist. Mr. Kinstler, a student of Frank Vincent Dumond, and a close friend of James Montgomery Flagg, emphasized the importance of finding the distinctive characteristics of the model, rather than flattering her according to some ideal type.

He explained that he was only really showing how he started a portrait, and didn’t try to finish it in such a short time. Instead, he took a few photos and will finish it up in the studio.

As he turned to speak to the audience, I did my best to sketch him with my watercolor pencils, sitting just a few feet from him. 

Mr. Kinstler is 86 years old and has been painting professionally for nearly 70 years. He has painted seven presidents from life, probably a record for any American portrait painter. He exemplifies curiosity, hard work, and a respect for history. He is a champion of three guiding principles: imagination, feeling, and means of communication.

The paintings in the galleries showed all those qualities in abundance, from the adventurous pen-and-ink work for the pulp magazines, to the romantic book jacket cover art, to the life-size portraits. One thing I admire about Mr. Kinstler is how he embraces every aspect of his career, and he explains how the pulp and comic work informed him as a portrait painter.

Seeing the work all together (or reading about it in the excellent catalog) also makes the point that whether you call it illustration or fine art, it's all Art. The presence of the originals is quite stunning; reproductions in books or on the internet really don’t do them justice. 

His painting of Christopher Plummer as Prospero, painted just last year, shows that he’s still at the top of his game. The museum exhibit will be on view through May 28. 

Norman Rockwell Museum website 

Kinstler's classic instructional book: Painting Portraits
Exhibition Catalog: Everett Raymond Kinstler: From Pulps to Portraits 

Kinstler’s site on Portraits.com

Thanks to Stephanie, Melinda, Martin, Jeremy, George, and Laurie