A painting starts in the mind. It must. From there, the complicated, elusive, grinding process of getting your vision onto a canvas begins. Gathering one’s visual data, be it from life, sketches, field work, collected props, or reference photos, you reference all these to try to convey what started in your mind, your heart. And then begins the days, weeks, months of getting that “vision” onto a two--dimensional surface. Beginning a painting is easy. It’s like giving birth- the joy! The elation! The surprise of what comes out! It's raising that child, though, that “will take ALL the love you can give.” Finishing a painting is much like that: hard work. It will drain you of everything you’ve g
I recently interviewed Dan Thompson and Mary Qian about what it’s really like to take part in a Face-Off! Both artists did their first Face-Off in Atlanta, 2019. The Face-Off is a popular annual Portrait Society of America conference event which kicks off the main conference activities. In the largest hall, 18 artists use their chosen medium to paint, draw, or sculpt six different models for three hours. People love walking around and seeing how the different artists work! Afterwards, these portraits are auctioned off to raise money for the PSoA scholarship fund. It’s an honor to be invited to take part, and I started off our discussion with the obvious question. 1) How did you feel about be
