Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Inspiration from Artists Week 23: Tim Benson and Kelvin Okafor.
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
Yes, I did suggest portraits, Alan, but you mentioned his landscapes in your introduction, so thought I’d take a look at them, as Paul had already posted a few. Have, though, had another look at his portraits - I like this one which has a lighter feel to it.
Some of his portraits can be quite unflattering, but maybe this is the ‘visceral feeling’ he aims to capture.
Some of his portraits can be quite unflattering, but maybe this is the ‘visceral feeling’ he aims to capture.
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
We do have some portrait artists coming up as they were mentioned a few weeks ago. I do try to vary each week and include as many different styles and subjects. Your choice of artist is definitely generating interest Alan even if it’s divided between like , don’t like not sure . I’m in the I like them and admire his skills as a portrait artist I don’t admire his landscapes as much but acknowledge he is good at the style he uses. Having different artist and therefore different styles featured has certainly been a benefit to me and hopefully others as I would not have looked at a lot of the artwork featured over the past few months.
Posted
Just read a little more about his work and how he’s committed to working with charities and NGOs to tell the stories of people throughout the world who don’t have a voice - such as those who suffered from Ebola in Sierra Leone, and how they and their families were affected by it. Makes you view his work in a different light.
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Cataract Patient.
Sleeping Man, Marrakech.
This post has been removed as it violates our forum rules and guidelines.
And how sweet is this baby! I like the idea that he uses one large brush, surely more difficult to achieve a younger face like this by that method?
Posted
A slight digression but relevant I would not want to be a art critic especially the know all type, I get very frustrated at times when there is some excellent artwork and I can’t explain how I see it or the feeling it give . A big part of the problem for me is having dyslexia it does restrict my choice of writing vocabulary, but them most of the time I’m thinking of what I see not writing it down . It also frustrating when someone tells you what you should be seeing in a painting, fortunately this doesn’t happen on POL. Whilst I admire Tim Bensons skill and the actual paintings they don’t get me excited and I do wonder am I missing something that is obvious to others. Sorry for rambling on, curiosity was getting to me.
Posted
Well, I've not done it - I've drawn babies, but never painted one (well, it wouldn't stay still, tee hee - note double entendre.... yes, well, please yourselves...): what most of us get wrong about babies and younger children, though, is the shape of the head and the size of the features in relation to it. And we're in excellent company: take a look at some of the truly awful representations of the infant Christ in some Old Master paintings.
I don't think the big brush method necessarily makes it more difficult - it won't achieve the more cherub-like effects, perhaps, but I can easily believe in the portrait above, even though to my eye there's an excess of upper lip over chin, even for a baby. Babies aren't necessarily rosy-cheeked and glowing, however - there's still a lot of life, and a fair amount of incipient dribble, in that face.
Agree about the portraits of old people - and his portraits in general. Less keen on the most recent landscape, shown by Denise - I think Denise is less conservative than I am, though!
Posted
Paul - different things appeal to different people: what I like about the portraits is their painterly quality - he manipulates oil paint (I was slightly surprised to learn from Alan that he uses Titanium White - I wonder if he removes some of the oil from it first by squeezing it onto kitchen towel), shapes it, applies it directly and can also just leave it alone, as a statement where it sits. That works well in the kind of rough-hewn portraiture in which the play of light, and the physical shape of the paint, determine the features, rather than ultra-careful mapping and photo-realism.
Does it work so well in landscape - well; it can .... and in his hands, it sometimes has. I don't think it always works, however: Field at Sunrise, above, veers too far towards abstraction for me, and as with one or two of his other landscapes, I'm not sure it works as a whole. Obviously he's not one of nature's blenders - but those short stabs of thick paint to represent sky just look too heavy to me: which isn't to say that's not how it might have looked to him on the day; and as I'm very rarely out of bed at sunrise - waddo I know?