14 June 2018

portraits of RM

portrait painting oil on paper in my 9x12 sketchbook

Portraits of RM, made in the summer of 2015.  About five weeks ago we received news of his death.

Making portraits is very interesting to me.  Often in the finished work I find I have caught something of my sitter's personality that has not been apparent to my conscious mind.

One thing I like to do when looking at portraits (drawings, paintings or photographs) is to cover first one half and then the other, looking at each side separately.  I find there are usually two personalities contained in every face.  Of course there are many more than two sides to a person, but it seems at least two are evident in almost every portrait.  Maybe two sides of the artist as much as of the sitter.

portrait painting oil on canvas mounted on masonite panel Rob MacKinnon
portrait painting oil on canvas mounted on masonite panel Rob MacKinnon

2 comments:

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Verna,

These are wonderful. I don't know who RM is, but you've made him look so friendly and enigmatic at the same time.

XOXOXOXOXO Barbara

Verna Vogel said...

Hi Barbara,

Friendly and enigmatic - those are very good words to describe this man. He was our friend for some years - JP's friend since high school, a long time.

xoxoxo
V