The first SECAC session I wandered into was by mistake. I had intended to go to 1 Painter 1 Painting Session 1 but I wrote the room number down wrong. Regardless I was pleasantly surprised at the In Situ Session I did attend. For the second session I attended, I decided to correct my mistake and go to 1 Painter, 1 Painting Session II run by Amanda Lechner.
The first speaker was Donna Woodley from Tennessee State University. Her talk was titled, Restoring the Innocence of our Grands. Donna explained the steps she took in doing a painting of her grandmother. Her grandmother was deceased, so Donna used photo reference to complete the posthumous portrait.
She knew she wanted to have the portrait use orange and blue colors. She found the color scheme in an outdoor seating arrangement at a restaurant. She then showed the photos of her grandmother that she used for reference. She wanted to break away from strictly following the photo reference so she considered putting a golden comb in her grandmother’s hair. That idea was abandoned since her grandmother never wore such a crown like hair comb. What followed was then a series of photos of the painting in progress. Donna liked the result, but when she showed the painting to her parents, they felt it didn’t look quite right. A comment from a member of the audience eluded to the idea that the portrait might have some similarities to the painter who painted it. Donna admitted the her grandmother had a great influence on her, but as far a physical attributes she was very distinct.
The next presenter was Emily Ezell from Grambling State University with her presentation titled, Compulsion and Expulsion: A Psycho-Chromatic Trip into the Deep End of Postmodern Figurative Painting. She showed every stage of the research and painting progress of a big painting about the relationship between mothers and sons. She referenced many paintings from art history as she developed the complex composition. I liked how she used the digital program, Procreate to make a composite image that she referenced but then deviated from.
During the height of the pandemic, I used a similar digital approach to develop concepts for paintings, so I was pleased to see another artist using the same approach. Emily manipulated the image extensively changing colors and moving elements around until it came close to what she wanted.
She showed a painting titled, Spoils of the Hunt, by Keller Ferdinand which had a woman near a dead stag. She then showed a painting of Madonna and Christ and pointed out that the body of Christ and the dead stage were very similar. That was the realization that lead to her wanting to do the painting. The initial laying down of colors to block in the painting happened rather fast but once the detail work needed to be done the painting process slowed down. Seeing the process behind this large figurative work left me wanting to do large paintings myself.
The final presenter was Adam Eddy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His piece was titled, Still Life with Cantaloupe and Picture Frame. Adam got real geeky with the oil painting mediums used and how a painting is constructed. He went over painting techniques that have been around since the time of Jan van Eich. Since I have just recently started oil painting again, I was fascinated by every geeky detail. Adams painting was done from life with a simple still life of a cantaloupe. He did a monochrome under painting to find the correct values and then applied thin glazes to add color. He talked about seeing paintings he loved in text books and then going to a museum to see the paintings in person. Seeing the painting in the museum was an experience that surprised him. The paintings were covered in glass and so He saw his own reflection and the reflection notice others in the room. It was distracting and he felt he had a better view of the art in the book. He went back to his own still life painting and added this strange reflection to the final painting. When I saw the final painting as a photo in his presentation, I at first thought the reflection was just a result of a poorly lit photo, but it was painted and intricately planned. Hearing about his old master techniques left me wanting to try those techniques out for myself. Overall the 1 painter, 1 painting presentations were inspiring and made me want to get my hands dirty by covering a large canvas or panel.
