Update:  See a version of this blog with added photos on the Portrait Society website:

Portrait Society of America, Inc. - Portrait Society, Portrait Artists, Portra

If you love painting portraits like I do, then you must try to attend the annual portrait conference, The Art of the Portrait, given by the Portrait Society of America.  (www.PortraitSociety.org)  The following are some of the details and benefits.

The Location.  Since attending my first conference in 2003 in Washington, DC and sadly missing the 2004 conference in Boston, Massachusetts, I have been at every subsequent conference and I always enjoy them immensely.  The 2006 conference was in Dallas, Texas and the 2008 (the Portrait Society's tenth anniversary) was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The Washington, DC location is actually at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, Virginia, a nearby superb of Washington and near the Dulles airport.  The years I attended: 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009 were all in DC (Reston).  I heard during this year's conference that DC will be the permanent location, maybe because the specifics of managing the conference have been worked out rather successfully.

The Shuttle.  The conference begins in the late afternoon on Thursday, when most people are flying or driving into town.  You get a big clue that the DC conference is happening when you take the free, convenient shuttle to the hotel from Dulles airport and everyone on the shuttle is an artist or looks like one.  As opposed to sometimes grumbling, stern, darkly dressed business travelers, this group on the shuttle is usually smiling, dressed with a little more flair or color, and carrying all sizes of portfolios.  I usually buy some roses at the airport to enliven my stark hotel room and the flowers typically invite some artistic conversations.  One of the many conference benefits is the short shuttle ride, where you can perhaps begin connecting with other artists from around the country and maybe develop lasting friendships.

The Hotel.  Checking in at the Hyatt is usually swift and the staff are very courteous.  The attendees receive conference room rates.  Like most people, I take my things to the room before heading to the conference registration area.  The rooms at the Hyatt have always been nicely appointed and clean.  The hotel elevator bank can get busy at certain times, however, they offer another chance to connect with other attendees.  As an alternative and for some much need exercise, the stairwells are good for short trips.  I believe the hotel also offers an exercise room. 

The Conference Registration.  Volunteers and the Society's state ambassadors stand at tables loaded with the attendees registration packets.  The attendees receive in their packet: their name badges, tickets, and conference information.  This year, the packet included a lot of product promotional literature as well.  Again, one more chance to connect with people and if you haven't already, you can meet your state ambassador.

The Art Suppliers.  Another benefit of the conference is a room devoted to booths of art suppliers.  Besides offering information, the reps are selling various products, such as brushes or paints, and sometimes at reduced prices.  I have not checked whether the prices compare with the internet or catalog prices.  For me, I try to find bargains and unique items.  This year, from the Richeson Company (www.richesonart.com), I excitedly bought their paper palette that was the color of middle value gray.  Wow - this will be good for demonstrations and for my students before they invest in a wooden palette.   As for wooden palettes, I usually stop by the Turtlewood Palette booth (www.Turtlewoodpalettes.com), a company in Tennessee that I discovered during a Michael Shane Neal workshop (www.MichaelShaneNeal.com).  The company has a vast array of wooden palettes and every year I purchase one or two (the palettes travel great in the suitcase).

The Books and Dvds.  Here's your chance to peruse various portrait and art books that may not be at the typical bookstore.  Most of the authors are going to be speaking or demonstrating during the conference.  If your budget can afford it, you can purchase the book and if offered, stand in line to have it personally signed by the author.  When the book is really popular or short in supply, try to buy it early as I have always witnessed sell-outs each year.  The dvds are even a better deal to purchase at the conference because they are usually sold only through a special website (and you save on mailing fees).  Some dvds sell-out as well.  This year there were some reduced dvd prices, probably to move some stock and help our fellow artists in the current, strained economy. 

The New Face-Off.  Thursday nights are usually filled with some activity to supplement the incoming registration process and art supply shopping.  This year it was a new "Face-Off" program.  In a large room,  fifteen of the top-tiered portrait artists painted from models (three artists to a model) for two and half hours with  the normal model breaks.  The attendees could walk around the room or sit on provided chairs and witness various artists creating their alla prima portraits.  I believe all were painted with oil paint except Judith Carducci (www.JudithCarducci.com), who painted with pastels.  Having studied with Dawn Whitelaw (www.DawnWhitelaw.com), I spent more time watching and enjoying her endeavors.  Then, the resulting portraits were place in a room where attendees could write in silent bids to raise money for the Society.

The Artist's Perspectives.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are filled with a selection of top-tiered portrait artists' perspectives or talks, usually with plenty of slides and/or photos of artwork.  This year John Howard Sanden (www.JohnHowardSanden.com), Everett Raymond Kinstler (www.EverettRaymondKinstler.com), Richard Schmid (www.RichardSchmid.com), and Burton Silverman (www.BurtonSilverman.com) gave their particular perspectives.  Each gave rich information of their experiences, lives, and artwork, all with adequate touches of humor.

The Artist's Demonstrations.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are also filled with a selection of top-tiered portrait artists' demonstrations with a model that may be someone famous or perhaps another popular artist.  This year artists demonstrating were Mary Whyte (a watercolorist) (www.colemanfineart.com), Judith Carducci (a pastelist and a people choice selection from the Face-Off Thursday night), and Daniel Greene (an oil demo) (www.DanielGreeneArtist.com).   All three gave good instructions while painting under the bright stage lights.  There are three huge projector screens in the room that display a split-screen of the model and the painting.  The stage is too far away for most people to try to watch the actual action on the canvas.  Taking plenty of notes is good advice  for these demos as the information is forthcoming and worthwhile.  I just compared my Daniel Greene notes from the previous years and he is always very thorough and consistent, like his dvds.

The Break-out Sessions.  Friday afternoons have the two break-out sessions where attendees can select one topic from each session to attend.  Each year there's always a session with Daniel Greene critiquing the sent in slides and a drawing session or two by a popular artist.  Then there are panels with a group of top-tiered artists that discuss various topics of the business or techniques.  There's usually a demo session or two by a particular artist.  One of the regulars is Calvin Goodman, a management consultant (www.artmarketinghandbook.com), that helps artists.

The Portfolios.  If you have one, bring it.  Be sure to spruce it up and put your best work in it.  During the lunchtime hours, you can have top-tiered artists review your portfolio and give you advice.  Prepare to stand in line, especially if you wait for a more popular artist to review your portfolio.  In addition, you can have your friends or new acquaintances take a look at it.  You can also leave it on a long table that provided for the portfolios where other artists can look at it and maybe leave a note of encouragement.  Last, there's a portfolio competition and maybe you might win.

The Competition.  Besides bringing all the portrait artists together for the demos and perspectives, the other goal is to decide the winners from the finalists of the portrait competition.  This year there were fifteen entries displayed at the conference.  This is another benefit for the conference, seeing the finalist paintings together and up close.  During the opening ceremonies, the finalists' slides are displayed as well as the honorable mentions.  Then during the banquet Saturday night, the winners are announced and awarded.

The Banquet.  Saturday night is the night to put on your best, chat with your table mates and eat banquet food, hear the announcement of the winners, and listen to some selected speakers.  Special awards are given out this time and this year's Gold Medal Award was given to Nelson Shanks (www.NelsonShanks.com).  Afterward, many artists celebrate or go back to their rooms to pack because Sunday is checkout.

The Cecelia Beaux Forum.  This is a forum that specializes in promoting and mentoring women in the arts and it usually has a lunchtime program for the members.  This year Mary Whyte gave an excellent talk on tips to create your best painting ever. 

The Inspiration Hour.  On Sunday morning before the conference begins, attendees can experience an inspiration hour where artists can appreciate their spiritual influence in their work.  Usually there is a guest speaker to offer his or her point of view and this year the speaker was Calvin Goodman.

The Museum Visit.  The conference officially ends at noon on Sunday.  The attendees are then invited to take a round trip bus trip from the hotel to a local museum for the afternoon.  Again, the bus trip is another way to meet other artists.  This year the museum trip was to the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery  (www.npg.si.edu) in downtown DC.  Previously, I missed it due to my early flight home, however this year I made an extra effort to go (and paid for it by taking a $$60 taxi ride back out to Dulles).  My friends and I did receive a special treat.  Sculpture artist, Rhoda Sherbell, NA (www.theArtStudentsLeague.org), personally took us around the museum and so graciously showed us her three sculptures. 

The Friends.  The last topic is the most important.  In the world of portraiture when many times as an artist, you spend a lot of time working alone at the easel, being able to connect with other portrait artists is the most rewarding aspect of the conference.  Each year my circle of artist friends get larger due to the conference.  Sometimes just a warm smile and a quick catch-up are all that you can share because the conference is full of the stated above activities.  So, bring plenty of your business cards because there is always email or Facebook to keep in touch until next year.

 

 

 

 

 

Last Saturday, I visited Michigan's Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (www.kiarts.org) to see the closing exhibit (Feb. 8, 2009) "Spared From the Storm", a collection of 89 masterworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art.  It was my first visit to the museum and I was impressed.  Free parking was across the street and the staff was helpful and pleasant.  (I was told the exhibition catalog was a dissappointment as it had artwork that didn't come to Kalamazoo.)

After watching a ten minute video by the curators (interesting details about the museum and its employees surviving the recent infamous hurricane Katrina), I went searching for one of the exhibit's highlights:  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun's "Portrait of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France" (1788).  The curator said that Ms. Vignee-Le Brun carried the painting when she left France in order to have an example of her work.  Thinking it was small, I quickly wandered through the three rooms of the exhibit but I didn't see it.  When I went to ask a docent at the museum's lobby, I suddenly found it and I couldn't believe that I missed it when I entered the museum.  The painting with its massive, ornate frame is probably eleven feet tall!  (The actual painting's dimensions are 109.5 x 75.5 inches.)  I'll have to check my book on Vignee-Le Brun to see what it says about the painting...  From the book by Gita May Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun - The Odyssey of an Artist in an Age Of Revolution, on page 40,  a similar if not the same painting is described, "en robe de velours bleu".  The author says she's holding a book in her left-hand (the painting I saw has the book in her right-hand) but the rest of the description depicts the painting like the one in the exhibit.  (One of my major complaints of art books is that some of them do not include the dimensions of the artwork.)

After that, I wandered through the three rooms devoted to the exhibit.  The curators said one of the New Orleans Museum's mission is to collect French paintings, keeping with the flavor of its city's heritage.   The exhibit did have a good balance of French and non-French artists.  The first room had pre-Impressionist and earlier paintings.  Since I favor portraits, I zoomed in on a painting, "Portrait of Louis XIV" by Claude Lefebvre (1670).  I'm not aware of the artist, however, I am acquainted with the that era's style of meticulously rendering details. 

I move onto the next room that had the 1800's paintings and portraits.  I stayed longer in this room, to study the portraits.  There was a Franz Xaver Winterhalter - "Young Woman in a Ball Gown" (1850), which was very gracious in its large oval frame.  Excitingly, nearby was a William-Adolphe Bouguereau - "Whisperings of Love" (1889); and oh, his cool light on the warm skin technique was delightful.  On a nearby wall, was a Robert Henri - "The Blue Kimono" (1909).  I think I've read his book, The Art Spirit, more than once and now I finally see his work.  It seemed to be more about the kimono than the woman wearing it and although painterly, the colors were a bit too drab.

Next to it was my favorite of the exhibit:  John Singer Sargent's "Mrs. Asher Wertheimer" (1898).  Many of Sargent's oil portraits have a dark background, however this one was a refreshingly light.  The pearls were dabs of paint and the lace was indicated but not labored.  I got up close to see the face and noticed his technique of using warm and cool colors to model the face all the while keeping the values close.  Wonderful.  I checked my book at home about this painting.  From Richard Ormond's John Singer Sargent, Portrait of the 1890's, the portrait of Mrs. Asher Wertheimer was painted as a companion to her husband's more famous painting in celebration of their silver wedding anniversary.  Her painting feels of silver.  (Check on line for her husband's painting, Asher Wertheimer by Sargent at www.artrenewal.com.)

There were other Impressionists in the room, such as pals Sisley, Monet (a pale lavender winter scene and not quite his best house/landscape painting), and Pissaro (a most delicious sunset painting).  The Impressionist Manet came to New Orleans to visit relatives and painted one painting, which was on exhibit.  Again, another large, dark painting and seemingly unfinished out towards the edges; however, his subject, a relative going blind was painted so astutely but delicately.  I could only glance at the sculptures in the exhibit, such as a large Rodin's standing nude man because my allotted excursion time was quickly running out.

The last room had the Post-Impressionists up to modern times.  I recognized many from my painting trip to southern France a few years ago.  (While there, I visited the artist museums of Picasso, Leger, Miro, and Matisse and it was good to see these masters in the exhibit.)  Rounding it out, there were examples of Pollock and Stella among other abstract and modern artists.  Judging from the exhibit, the New Orleans Museum of Art has an excellant representation of masterworks. 

I quickly explored the permanent collection downstairs and the two gift shops (one for the exhibit).  Overall a good museum and one to return to with more time to devote to savoring good art.