In the Studio- painting "Hadley"

This is the third of the three portraits I've been sharing this month. This painting is of Hadley, the oldest and wisest of the three. Hadley is an exquisitely beautiful young lady, one who I knew my own daughter would be best friends with if they knew each other. Her eyes take it all in, and seem to have depth of a Caribbean sea.

If you take a look at the portraits I painted of Hadley's brothers Charlie and Matthew, you'll notice, as their mother did, that there is kind of a progression of the stature of the portraits, from Matthew's simple and plain background to Charlie's full-painted background and now to Hadley's Three-quarter Figure sized portrait. I thought this would be more interesting and fun (yes, I do have fun when painting) to paint each portrait differently without varying the style. Hadley's portrait is larger (20" x 24") than her brothers'.

I like Hadley's pose, especially that of her hands. And yet, I kept the focus on her eyes and face by painting the rest of the portrait loose, including her hands. This seems to me more akin to our natural vision, for things fall out of focus as they move concentrically away from our fixed point of attention, in this case Hadley's eyes. Though I enjoy some paintings where all is as tight and detailed as can be, but that is not how we see, and thus the viewer's eyes jump around a painting from one detailed point to another. More on this later. For now, let's enjoy these three wonderful portraits for a wonderful customer and new friend of mine.

In the Studio- painting "Charlie"

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I am painting three beautiful children for a Maryland family. The second portrait is a pastel on paper of Charlie. Both Charlie's and Matthew's are pastel on Canson paper, each 16" x 20", which is an ideal size for children's portraits (adult Head & Shoulders are more comfortable on a 20" x 24" or 20" x 28" sized canvas when painted life-size). Charlie and I had a couple sittings to capture his true personality. I learned a long time ago that, when painting children's portraits, I'm not painting necessarily what I see, or even what the camera sees, but I must paint what the mother sees in her child. I recall one portrait where a dozen people had seen a portrait on my easel, each commenting that I had "really captured to a 'T'" a child's likeness only to have the mother say upon her first view "That's not my child!" I realized then and there who my true audience is when it comes to children's portraits! Stay tuned for more on the portrait process.

In the Studio- painting "Matthew"

This is the first of a number of entries that will feature what's happening in my studio. This portrait is a pastel on paper (Canson Mi Tientes) of the youngest of three beautiful children I'm painting in Maryland. Matthew is sweet and inquisitive. Unlike his siblings' portraits, I decided to keep his background simple for a look of innocence. I really like the result.

Though at any given moment I have a plethora of ideas swirling in my head, on my easels I usually only have a few works at a time that I'm working on. I like to devote my time completely to pulling a painting together, for my work is more the result of a series of solutions to "problems" or better said, "challenges". The first challenge is to somehow transport the wonderful imagery in my mind to the blank canvas before me on my easel. Most artists will agree that this is one of the most intimidating points of the painting process- starting with that big blank nothing to begin the something that we have painted so beautifully and perfectly in our minds. Somewhere, between the nothing and the- hopefully- beautiful result an amazing process takes place in the artist's mind. This is what I absolutely love and thrive on as an artist. I love it. I love the challenge, even the struggle. I am not trying to conquer the canvas, but instead seek to display its potential.

Outdoor portraits and color

There are two things I love most when painting: painting outdoors and seeing color. The two go hand in hand, like cookies'n'cream, butter and lobster, and popcorn and a movie (I must be hungry). My father, Bill Chambers, often reminded me during my training years that portraiture was the most difficult of art careers, but also the most satisfying. Well, I haven't experienced anything more challenging than pulling off a portrait with good color. It's a challenge to get all the color relationships right. Actually, truth be told, it often seems impossible.

When I studied with Henry Hensche during summers on Cape Cod, I was always amazed at how he would use the entire palette to arrive at beautiful- and accurate!- color every time. He didn't follow the trend of reducing his palette to five or so colors. He didn't follow a formula in his head. He looked. He compared. He scanned. He responded to what was in front of him. His teacher, Charles Hawthorne, taught his students to "get the spots right, and then all else, including your drawing, will be right." Simply said, and best done simply, but most difficult to actually accomplish. Gotta love the challenge, though!

"Joshua & Cayla on Bald Head Island" by Timothy Chambers; Oil on Linen 40x60

Clayton Beck's values

Clayton Beck III, a friend and esteemed peer of mine, creates remarkable paintings. Every time I look at his work, I wonder how he pulls off such beautiful work with such efficiency. I feel that the struggle I go through with each painting is part of the process, and yet I look at Clayton's work and think- "This is just simply beautiful!"

Clayton reveals a little bit of his secret on his site (www.claytonjbeckiii.com) on his Instructional Pages. We are both teachers, and I know that understanding values is one of the crucial requirements of producing a good painting, and yet it is consistently one of the areas that many students fail to grasp. However, Clayton sums up the value process well:

When trying to get a grasp on values, the first thing that you want to understand is the limits of edge and value.

Where is my HARDEST EDGE?

Where is my SOFTEST EDGE?

Where is my LIGHTEST LIGHT?

Where is my DARKEST DARK?

The answers to these questions will help you to organize your work into something that may not be so overwhelming right from the beginning. Once I have a few of these anchor points, I no longer feel lost and I can start my work with some confidence. I no longer feel that my subject has me lost and I feel I can begin with a clear path in mind. All work should begin with some sort of plan.

I encourage my students to ask the same four questions before they lay one stroke on their canvas, and then again as the painting develops. Knowing the answers to these questions is a definite step towards achieving a balanced painting, and avoid running out of values before we're done. Maybe, just maybe, then we'll someday be able to paint like Clayton.

Above image is a detail Clayton sent me of a recent painting demo.

Cecilia Beaux and relationships

Portrait clients sometimes are faced with the dilemma of whether to have a multiple portrait (say of a mother and child or of two children) painted or to go with two separate portraits, one of each individual. Thus, I am often asked what the aesthetic difference is between the two. The answer is simple: a multiple portrait is about relationships.

During a recent visit to Philadelphia I took in the Cecilia Beaux exhibit. I was mesmerized by the wonderful display of her work, taking in as much as I could, though for me there's a point where I just can't take any more, similar to enjoying only a few Godiva chocolates at a time. Ever since I saw Beaux's portrait Ernesta with Nurse years ago I've been taken by her amazing work. Of all painters, Beaux is one of my top ten- maybe even in the top five. She paints with such confidence, as we can see in her strokes. Yet, she also displays the sensitivity of Mary Cassatt, as you can see in the picture of her painting Mrs. Stedman Buttrick and Son John.

Can you feel the pride, love, and even the amusement the mother has for her little boy? You can also sense the boy's playful sense of surprise and intrigue with his mother, as well as the security that children have with their mother (ask any dad who his child looks for when they've just gotten a boo-boo, even if Dad is standing right there, ready to help. It's still "Mommy!? I'm hurt! Where's Mommy?" Dad: "Hey, I'm here. What's wrong?" "...Mommy!" Dad: "(Sigh)...She's upstairs.").

Beaux takes a mother-child portrait from a simple record of persons to a sharing of a wondrous eavesdropping of joy, and does so with no apology of craftsmanship. I know without question that this portrait elicited much more response from visitors to the Buttrick home than would one of a more proper (i.e. staid?) pose and composition. If, for instance, the mother had been looking at the viewer instead of leaning back to take in her son, we would have lost the obvious expression of love, and instead, as a viewer of the scene, would have assumed (and hoped) that such a love actually existed.

What a great portrait!

Welcome!

Welcome! If you're here, you've most likely crossed paths with me at some point, and even then, most likely with a palette in one hand and brushes in the other. This blog will focus on my current work and musings, and will feature photos of works in progress and of others' works that inspire me. I'll share what goes through my mind as I'm working on each piece, and also we can discuss what it is about others' works (not just paintings, either) that cause for inspiration.

Enjoy, and your feedback is always invited.

~Tim