People and portraits

Portrait of a Teenage Girl

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Sold Acrylics on paper, 60 x 80 cm

I did this portrait following as closely as I could Rembrandt’s approach to portrait painting.   However he used oil paints and I use acrylics.  Blending with acrylics is problematic as they dry so quickly so you have to paint afresh where planes join, although retarders help.  His models were in person whereas I use photos, as do most of us given the hours and hours it takes to paint a portrait.  Some do a combination of a sitting during which they take photos and work from them later.  In the British national portrait competition they had a model  and all the artists worked from photos while the sitter could move around freely and talk to the interviewer.  Not all photos are professionally done so the lighting is not easy to deal with, as was the case with the photo I used here.  The subject was in a snow scene, cheeks red here and there from the cold and hardly any shadows from the diffuse lighting.   

Picard

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Patrick Stewart has aged, making for interesting challenges for an artist, so I took it on.

 

Patrick Stewart b. 1940  an English actor, director and producer. He started as a Shakespearean actor before going to television and film. He has been nominated for multiple awards. He is one of my favorite actors. I watched some episodes of Picard just to see him do the part. It was otherwise a not series I found particularly interesting. The popup control panels were astonishing.

Patrick Stewart, Conte Crayon (sold) on Canson paper

Family portraits

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Portraits of members of my family.

mom watercolor
My mother Diana, watercolor

Her first name was really Sebastiana, an Italian name, but she went by Diana since around 1928. She was born in Brooklyn. Her sister was born in Sicily, probably Partanna where her father, my grandfather, was born.

dad june 20
My father Frank, graphite
matthew final sm
Mathew (Matteo), digital

Mathew, as we knew him, was born in Partanna, Sicily. He was our uncle. He came to the US around 1914. His last name differs however. I obtained his birth certificate. Unlike the others, the parents names are not stated. We have no idea who his father was.

gary peg nut farm final
Peg and I in Pennsylvania, digital
caroline peloso
My brother’s wife, Caroline, who recently passed away
charles6
Camillo, my half siblings father , acrylics

Camillo was born in Marsala, Sicily (yes, home of the famous wine). My brother says his hair was not curly as I have depicted it. He died during WWII while at work at the Brooklyn shipyards. I found his death certificate, upon which my mother’s first names were both used. I needed this to show the Italian consulate that Diana and Sebastiana were the same person. This allowed me to claim Italian citizenship.

self portrait small
Self portrait, acrylics

These next two are my more creative and less realistic portraits of older relatives

giuseppe
This is Giuseppe, my mother’s father.
francesca
Francesca, my grandmother
mae water color 1
My granddaughter Mae, watercolor
olive water color aug 1
My granddaugther Olive
Avec Ma Fille a Paris
With my daughter

Into the Night Sky

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Into the Night Sky, acrylics on paper, 30 x 40, 11.25 x 16.5

From the story of Julio and Alicia in El Gran Hotel. The story takes place in turn of the century Spain. Julio looks for his missing sister at the Hotel, finding work as a waiter. He finds a sympathetic ear in Alicia, who is forced to wed a crooked partner of her parents. In the ethos of the time Alicia must not wed below her status as a well to do heiress. She finds this secret room in the hotel, hidden between two guest suites. Here they meet. I did a version in chiaroscuro here http://garyjkirkpatrick.com/couple-views-eclipse-from-bed-in-chiaroscuro/

The Screams- Solitary Confinement in Lithuania

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acrylics on paper, 11.7 x 16.5", A4 30 x 42 cm
Solitary Confined- The Screams. acrylics on paper, 11.7 x 16.5″, A4 30 x 42 cm

The Screams- Solitary Confinement in Lithuania was done during our visit to Lithuhania. This scene is from the Gestapo/Soviet detention and torture facility. This nightmare is the solitary confinement chamber just barely bog enough for one person and was probable kept very dark. It’s torture without leaving a mark on your body.

I write more about it here: http://www.garyjkirkpatrick.com/the-specter-of-russia/