Super Model Sarah

My daughter, Sarah, modeled for my portrait painting class (that I teach through the Great Falls Foundation for the Arts) today. I had a chance to paint her in the morning class. What a great experience!

It was also fun to see each students' interpretation of my daughter. Everyone caught some aspect of who she is.

Close-up of sketch of Sarah. 20"h x 16"w, oil on linen (Senso canvas), copyright Jill Banks 2008.

More images from class: Mehrnaz Moussavi putting the final touches on her painting of Sarah (whew! she was painting at top speed!); Diane Falconer with her painting; Shanaz Asasi with hers.

I will be teaching again in the Fall, classes once a week for eight weeks. More details coming soon on my classes and others offered through the Great Falls School of Art. I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching and witnessing the joy of discovery from a different perspective. Please email me (jillbanks1@aol.com) if you would like to be added to my list of prospective students.

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.