Tamara Gribach Is Face #61: Funny Day Today

"Tamara Gribach: Face #61," oil, 12"h x 12"w, copyright Jill Banks 2011

Tamara is part of the Gribach family, my parents' Russian friends. Her husband, Vladimir, and daughter, Zoya will also be part of my 100 Faces in 100 Days Project.

The day started with my wondering where Tamara was. I had sent her an email yesterday about where I'd be painting her (I have multiple studios and I don't know far in advance where I'll want to be). She didn't get my email so she was looking everywhere around the Artists' Atelier (my studio in Great Falls, VA) while I was hanging out in my home studio. Soon I get the phone call with Tamara's Russian accent, "Jill, where are you?" She had gone into fellow artist and former studiomate Adrienne Kralick's gallery and had asked about me in there ... and a bunch of folks there asked if she was today's "face." Pretty funny. A bunch of them have already been painted and others are scheduled to sit for my project. Tamara must have wondered how all of them knew.

She did make it to my door. My goal was getting her to relax and get down to this painting business.

Tamara makes it to almost all of my art "events" -- exhibits, studio tours, outdoor shows, you name it. A tradition is that she brings me a chocolate bar as a present. Today she brought two. Pretty cute.

We make it into my studio and I point to the chair for Tamara to sit in and I go over to my easel to set up. Tamara wants to switch the easel and the chair -- because I look much more beautiful standing at the easel than I would sitting in the chair. It was all about the light. I'd never had someone contest where I'd asked them to sit before. New territory. I did agree to play along to compare Tamara standing behind the easel and her sitting in the designated chair. Behind the easel, there were hardly any shadows (something she liked) and that made her skin tone more beautiful. But, that crammed me into a corner with my easel so I couldn't back up and those shadows help (a lot) in drawing/blocking in the portrait. I accepted those two challenges and proceeded, i.e., we switched places. I'm not usually that pliable.

Hmmm....

We spent four hours having fun talking and trying to figure out what the other one was saying. Someone should have taped us.

Despite the language challenges, we really had a very deep and beautiful conversation.

Tamara was working hard to convince me that as much laughing as she was doing, that I should show her not so serious. But I'm seeing a lot of potential paintings of each person who sits for me. We have many facets to our personality and I have to pick one view in. Since portraying my sitters laughing or showing a huge smile is about three times the work for me and requires I work from photos versus life, I rarely choose that expression. More time is spent with sitters thinking. Pensive, talking, relaxed. I paint that. It brings you closer, I believe, to that soul in front of me.

Tamara did say she thought that (my painting) was probably how she looked when she was working to find a translation for a Russian phrase or seeking an English word. And, she did a lot of that.

What a treat today was. I cherish it.

The show at the Artists' Atelier (the studio I share with 16 other artists) looks terrific. Since you missed tonight's First Friday, visit on Saturday open hours, noon to 4pm at 1144 Walker Road, Suite G, Great Falls, VA 22066 throughout March. (I'll be painting at home in the morning tomorrow but will make it for part of the afternoon.)

As wonderful as my 100 Faces Project is ... it wreaks havoc on the rest of my schedule. I was talking tonight to artist Claudia Samper about wanting to paint tulips ... and she said something about "why not, with the two minutes of time you're wasting." Pretty accurate.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
100 Faces in 100 Days Project: www.jillbanks.com/jillbanks/100_Faces_in_100_Days_Project.html
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435