Portraits

A portrait does not have to look exactly like a person. It can be what the person is really like on the inside. Photographs can capture your image but they sometimes don’t capture your whole self. Alice Neel did portraits that weren’t very flattering but they certainly have a lot of life and I am sure that if you knew these people they would resonate through the paint. Painting has more to offer than just a reflection.
Do you ever look in the mirror and think you dont look like yourself.
that is what is nice about paint. you can paint in the other part of you that is inside, and everyone knows about and can relate to. The invisible part is is past your actual face. Your spark.
You can paint a really loose rendition of someone and still capture how they are.
Photography can look glamorous and beautiful and soulful but it can also be a shadow of everything else that is in the person. I have seen super realistic paintings where the artist killed themselves doing a perfect representation of that mask.
Portraits are not just a likeness. Norman Rockwell did super realistic painting but they also blasted the essence of the person out too.
It is a skill to make it breathe.
You have to paint outside the lines to get at the center of what you want. You want to feel that person.

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