Brother & Sister

[Linda Nelson]

here ya go Alexandra - by the way - love your work on your web site!

Linda

[Michele Rushworth]

it's rare to have a client who allows their kids' portrait have the faces de-emphasized like this

So true, at least in my experience. But you're right that this approach brings the work much closer to being a work of art able to stand on its own merits outside of the family.

I think at one end of the continuum of the things we call "portraits" there are school photographs, taken purely for documentation purposes. "Here's what Billy looked like at age 12". This painting is at the other end of the spectrum, with a different purpose entirely. Clients typically want the documentation thing, sometimes at the expense of whatever it is that we call "art".

[Linda Nelson]

When painting my own son I have gone for the straight-on face, so I'm as guilty as my clients.

But the more examples of paintings like this, the more I think people will take the chance themselves. Many times when I talk with prospective clients, I describe the work as "custom fine art that your kids are in", which seems to help them think of the potential a portrait can be.

[Michele Rushworth]

"custom fine art that your kids are in"

Well put.

I'm about to begin a series of three paintings of siblings. We photographed the oldest one, a lovely young teen, out by a lake earlier this autumn. The setting is beautiful. I think I will propose a much more distant cropping than I usually do, so that it becomes more of a "figure in the landscape" painting, and see what they say.

[Janet Kimantas]

Linda, I've seen your work throughout this site as I've gone excavating. This last group of works are the only ones I have been able to congratulate you on. May I say how lovely they all are in just one post? But this one particularly stands out for me. I'd hang it on my wall, and they certainly aren't my kids. Interesting dialogue on the intersection between portraiture and fine art, by the way. Janet

[Linda Nelson]

Thanks so much Janet, and thanks for taking the time to look at my other work. I don't post here much but I've been around for about 5 years, when I first started painting and having the goal to be a portrait artist. Thanks again.
L

[Alexandra Tyng]

Linda, thanks for the closeups. Your work is beautiful at close range, too. It's aways interesting to me to "hear" artists discussing how to define portraiture. I don't think it is posssible to clearly define the boundaries between portraiture, figurative art, and landscape. There are all sorts of variations. This forum focuses on traditional portraiture; that makes me think of Sargent's plein aire paintings of his friends in landscapes. Of course he's not the only one to do this--I just happened to think of his art. It's arguable, but I would say these works are just as much meant to be portraits of specific people than they are meant to be landscapes or figurative works. Though your work is unique, there's plenty of tradition to support what you are doing.

[Richard Monro]

Linda,
I love this piece. It reads so well and the composition is smashing. To use the new phase we are workiing over on the forum, It has retina burn factor. I also like the looseness of the brushwork that reads so well from further back. Congratualtions on a wonderful piece of work.