Portrait Society Seminar 2023

 

The annual Portrait Society Seminar began with the Faceoff event, where 18 artists painted portraits of 6 models in a 3-hour time span. I painted Alexandria using casein.

Photo by Robin Damore

It was fun to meet people at a book signing and customize each book with sketches.

Photo by Robin Damore

On Saturday I was part of a discussion about painting from living, speaking models. I shared the panel with Mary Whyte and Michael Shane Neal. 

Throughout the weekend, pairs of painters stood on stage in the main ballroom painting three-hour portraits of fellow artists who acted as models. This time the model was Judith Carducci. On the left is Jeff Hein's portrait halfway through, and on the right is the painting by Rose Frantzen. 

Manufacturers showed and sold their wares, including brushes, paints, and panels. Here, Daniel Keys lays in a painting of irises on a Raymor panel.

I did a presentation about executing a rapid block-in in various media, and demoed a portrait sketch of John from the San Francisco Bay Area.

A small gallery displayed the two-dozen or so finalists in the Art of the Portrait competition. One of the winners was a portrait by Frances Bell of her fellow artist Andrew Festing. "Many of the artists I'd like to talk with are long dead," she says, "so this portrait celebrates a rare exception for a contemporary painter, a moment to coexist in a studio over warm conversation with a wonderful artist."

The Portrait Society not only celebrates traditional portraiture, but also figural painting in a broader sense. This painting by Sean Layh of Australia shows Icarus from the Greek legend fallen on a stony beach, surrounded by curious seagulls. The artist says the inspiratin comes from two works of non-fiction literature: Jan Morris's Farewell the Trumpets and Chantel Delsol's Icarus Fallen.

The prizewinners at the banquet hailed from many different countries, including Australia, Ukraine, Taiwan, and Japan. 

The winner of the $50,000 Draper Grand Prize was Paul Newton, who painted this self portrait during the Covid lockdown.

The next gathering of the Portrait Society of America will be in Atlanta a year from now.