Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
 

Just finished this companion piece to "Primary Colors." The sitter is the elder sister to the subject of the previous posting. A much quieter and gentler personality. She is just about to go off to graduate school to study English Literature - hence the book on Virginia Woolf (someone whose work she admires). The portrait is 20" by 24.' As always, I look forward to your comments.

Clive,

I like how you captured her gentle expression. That chair turned out pretty cool as well.

I like the range of colors and the simple brush strokes. Nice job!

Very nice work, Clive! Beautifully rendered face with such a convincing expression, and so well executed generally. Lovely!

(it's Virginia Woolf, by the way, not Wolf, and it's Who's not Whose - in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf)

Thomasin,

I am deeply embarrassed by my incorrect reference..particularly as I majored in English Literature. i wish I could call upon artistic license as an excuse, but alas I fear it is encroaching old age. Thanks for the positive comments about the painting.

Very Nice Clive, I'm sure her family loves it. I like the composition, her expression, and the simple brush strokes too. Now I'm going to have to go take a look at "Primary Colors" to refresh my memory.

What a beautiful work Clive, that's well painted and the chair is amazing.

I didn't mean to embarrass you, Clive. I always, always have to look everything up on google or wikipedia before posting because I more often than not get things very wrong. I was convinced, previously, Woolf was spelled Woolfe! And I spelled Shelmerdine Shellmardine (from Woolf's book Orlando) in my post with my painting Self-portrait as Shelmerdine.

Thank you all for your comments on this portrait. Many of you commented on the chair - I am not sure if it works in the context of the overall style of the painting. The level of realism is much higher in the chair compared to the relative painterliness of the rest of the portrait. I often wonder whether mixing levels of realism works. I would love to hear your opinions on this.

I am not a big proponent of smiles in portraits. There is a term used in psychology called the "Duchenne Smile.'" A Duchenne Smile is a genuine expression of emotion - a smile that shows in the muscles around the mouth and particularly in the expression in the eyes. This kind of genuine smile is compared to the "Pan Am" smile, named after the smiles characteristic of airline attendants and characteristic of yearbook photographs. Unfortunately my experience is that we have been taught to give Pan Am smiles, to smile on cue rather than in response to a genuine emotion. As a portrait painter I often have difficulty in eliciting a Duchenne Smile in my subjects - genuine expression of emotion is often equated with a broader grin. Toothy smiles in portraits are my bane as my teeth tend to turn out as bad whitening jobs. Fortunately in this photograph I managed to get the subject to give me a genuine smile - but believe me it took a lot of work.

It's a very convincing genuine smile, Clive, and the realism of the chair works beautifully with the figure.