I keep looking at that photo of you all....
hear no evil, see no evil, thinking evil, speak no evil.... ;)

Wow!
 

Dear Garth, If would say anything, I'd be just repeating what others have said.
Another great work!

Dear Garth,

This really is an incredible portrait and I really admire your sense of color throughout the whole painting. I'll bet it is a really good feeling to have one of your paintings , or several in your case, hung in such a place of distinction!

Many Congratulations,

Julie
________
Dispensaries

Garth--

Really masterfully done...

I appreciate so much your posting the details and discussing the hurdles. I've got a judge commission coming up and it will help immensely to have see this.

The head detail is beautiful and instructive. I've been struggling tremendously the last couple of years over skin tones and still am very dissatisfied. For some reason, this work really speaks to some of the things I'm wrestling with.

Thanks for your generosity of spirit in sharing your approach.

Best--TE

Garth,

I do love the painterly quality of the face. Not to be silly, but the flag has a luscious quality to it as well. Beautiful warm portrait apparently befitting the subject himself . I do wish sometimes someone would take the brush out of my hang before I noodle it too much.

Between you and Alexandra, you must be literally covering the walls of Philadelphia's municipal buildings.

Dear Lisa,

If there is another opportunity to travel west to Phoenix/Scottsdale/Mesa Arizona, I would be tempted to drive out ( I need a new car first), and I would certainly stop enroute, in St. Louis, in order to meet you. I would love to see you at work up close! Consider yourself a member.

Garth

Dear Scott,

I respect you so much as an artist, and am grateful for the constructive feedback you gave me, mid stream on this portrait. You helped me to focus on the essentials with your no nonsense K.I.S.S. advice and wisdom. Knowing you thought I was off to a good start on this portrait went a long, long way to keeping my courage afloat, enough so that I was able to carry through and finish this. I meant to send another progress shot, but everything was changing so rapidly with spontaneous revisals, that I never got around to it. Thank you so much!

A high compliment indeed, Scott! I wonder who has even approached Sargent with such deft and elegant brushwork? I still need decades to grow in his shadow. But thanks just the same!

Garth

For the sake of variety, there are still a number of artists actively commissioned at this venue.

Well there is just a note or two of this color in the flag fringe. I believe all those yellows are part of the orchestral score of that fringe. I shoot for earth yellows first. If the color needs more fortification then I will summon the more chromatic yellows in a second rank of attack. I find it hard to get to where I have to go with just a cadmium yellow; I like a full orchestra to draw out just the right visual and chromatic timbre. Of course this applies to fleshtones and everything else in the painting.

A full array of reds was most helpful for color development in the flag stripes. For that long downward semi-shadow stripe, the color was simply modulated principally with just two reds: the Mussini Cadmium Red Tone (which is a sopisticated equivalent hue of cadmium red medium), and the Winsor & Newton Light Red (which is a warm, robust, earth red). The more lit parts were an equal admixture of those two reds, while the deeper parts modulated to mostly the Light Red (which looks greener and more receding in that relationship).

When I arrived and met them, Linda and Chris told me they had a great time with you that day in California. When I realised Heidi was within an hour's drive of the others, I was so glad she could join us also. My I.Q. and self esteem seemed to surge for the day as well!

Garth

Garth,

You have a way of turning the traditionally stuffy, pompous, boring, judicial portrait, into one of warmth and character. Plus the fact that the technique is flawless. I can learn much from you and try every day.

Jean

:D I should admit that group photo was actually a Photoshop frankenstein creation! At one point, Chris was endowed with fifteen fingers! A little quick editing was needed.:oops:

Thanks for the drinks, tiny umbrellas and palm leaves!

Garth