After my New York art school days were over, and I was painting on my own for several years, a friend invited me to join a weekly painting group that met in SoHo on Greene Street. The sessions of this informal, but highly accomplished gathering of friends of the arts, and of one another, and known in fact, as
The Painting Group, were headed by the portraitist Aaron Shikler and painter and illustrator David Levine.
Every Wednesday evening, we members, plus a model, would gather and paint in this large, formerly industrial space. It was there that I got to know, and observe David Levine, who fascinated me with his continual experimenting with paint media, as he sought to express the persona of our model. Meanwhile, Aaron impressed us with his sensitive and skillful drawing and paint handling in compositions that focused on strong design and flattened local colors.
Recalling those days, I set to work painting Lily, who recently posed for me, to create a type of homage to both of these very inspirational teachers from my past. I posed Lily in a black and white dance costume to create strong graphic appearance to the design. Under soft daylight, I was able to keep her skin colors fairly unified in value, while flattening the black, gray, cream and white areas. After that, I focused on catching her expressive gaze and the slight curve of her mouth using a few quick brush strokes.
I would like to think Aaron and David would be pleased.
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| Transferring the photocopied drawing to glue-sized linen canvas |
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| Canvas with transferred contours (in blue Saral) |
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| Blocking in darks—bringing out the graphic qualities |
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| Adding darks and light in skin |
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| Modeling the facial features with expanded color palette |
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| Helen Oh, Lily Posing on Pluff Chair, oil on linen, 20" x 16" |
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| Andrew on a visit to Aaron Shikler's apartment & studio |
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| Helen and Aaron talking in his studio |
