An Old "New" Favorite: Alla Prima Portrait

Last Thursday night, after returning from teaching at the Loudoun Academy of Art, I decided to take another look at some of my not-so-recent paintings to see if any of them might be good to show the Chelsea 32 gallery folks the next day. (Sorry, long sentence.) I came across this one ... a head study I painted alla prima (all at once, or in a single sitting) of John Irvine, a favorite model. I loved the painting -- but the paint was dull and flat -- something that almost always happens as the paint dries. So, I varnished it, along with many other paintings, with Gamblin's Gamvar Picture Varnish, a favorite varnish of mine. Voila! This painting, with its great "bones" became a real jewel. Thus, an old "new" favorite. Or is it the other way around?

See more artwork inspired by John on these two older posts: post 1, post 2 (John's holding his cane).

They didn't choose this one -- so it's resting in the Atelier waiting for a new owner.

"Study of John," oil on Raymar panel, 14"h x 11"w, copyright Jill Banks 2007.

Alla Prima Painting of John Irvine

Today was a day I really was happy as a clam. I've been operating under a personal "cloud" for awhile now; yesterday it lifted; and today I painted and drew ... freely, happily, and well. This summer, I've been taking Rob Liberace's drawing and painting class at the Art League. It's actually interesting to be teaching class one day a week (Wednesdays) and a student another. I enjoy both roles.

I drew a black & white charcoal of John in the morning. This is done on Canson pastel paper using vine charcoal, some conte stick and black and white General's charcoal pencils.

The oil painting of John was done this afternoon. I'm working on Senso clear acrylic-primed linen canvases -- that I buy from Jerry's Artarama. Fellow artist and friend, Adrienne Kralick, was the first adopter of these. I try all sorts of materials -- every color of paint that catches my eye, and lots of different support materials. I love the Senso canvases. They're not perfectly stretched, but the linen has just the right tooth for painting from first to last stroke and I really like letting the unpainted linen show through.


This painting of John reminds me of two other favorite paintings I've done. One is "Robert" -- a painting that was done in the same period of time -- three hours max -- that benefits from the same fresh appeal and bravura of brushstrokes. You can't mess around when you aim to start and complete a painting this quickly. Thank goodness! Less opportunity to overwork or mess it up!

The other painting this reminds me of is another that I did of John. He's simply a great model. He's a favorite with artists throughout the Washington area, and he posed for the Portrait Society of America conference held in DC last year -- so many portrait artists know John's face.

See Tricia Ratliff's blog entry about painting John in Rick Weaver's portrait painting workshop.

"John in August", oil on linen, 20"h x 16"w, copyright Jill Banks 2008.