Discovered A Wonderful Portrait Artist

[jocelynsart]

Hi all; I hope this is ok!? lol! If not, well, I apologize in advance. I did not join, no, but I wanted to have a peek.
I was looking around SOG and I found this one artist who I was extremely taken with! She stood out. Her portraits were beyond the traditional type of sitter in a setting type. She is in Toronto, so near me.
This is her portfolio there. My fav was the little girl with the handful of trinkets and the Indian sort of girl with the beautiful earthy background and symbols in the background.
I found her work exciting.
Jocelyn
http://www.portraitartist.com/davies/portfolio.htm

[M.A.]

:cool: She does gorgeous work!! and she is originally from NS :D

[jocelynsart]

Oh, is she really? Cool! My sister and my Dad are going camping in NS this Summer. I want to do it one yr too. I've always wanted to see the East Coast.
I really found this portrait artist inspirational.

[M.A.]

If you come this way, please let me know, it would be so neat to meet you IRL :) Hope your sister and father have a wonderful time when they're here.

[eileenclaire]

Her work is exciting and very much alive. I can see why you find it inspiring. There are some incredible artists on that site. One I really like is this one:

http://www.portraitartist.com/mickle/portfolio-1st.htm

He is more traditional. But what I like about his work is that it looks so much like oil (he works in pastel). It's incredible to me that he can achieve that kind of realism with pastel.

[Dana Design]

These are wonderful artists. Thanks for the links. Mickle works in pastels! I can't believe he gets such detail!

Joss, do you have Chris Saper's book about Painting Skin Tones? If so, what do you think of it. I'm thinking of buying it.

Thanks!

[jocelynsart]

Hi Dana: No, I don't have any instructional books. 2 yrs ago I was going to try and buy her Glowing Watercolour Portraits, or titled something like that. But, I just never bothered. I find at this point, I don't want to get sidetracked or muddled or start doubting my own painting ways. I prefer just to view finished works for inspiration and continue to develop, expand and hone my own natural ways. I believe her portrait books are very good though, from what I know!
Eileen: Yes, his work is very good! I think any medium can be pushed to achieve whatever you want it to. It is usually a matter of the way the artist uses it and how far they go, how much time they spend. Especially when you talk about realism. The more time you spend usually heightens the level of realism, moving it further away from expressionistic brush strokes, etc.
I definately feel the underpainting is what is causing my acrylics to have that more "traditional oil" feel" as well as the amount of thin layers and blending I tend to have always done. My personal conclusion is, it is not so much your medium as how you use it. Once you can't tell what medium is used, then it usually means the piece has been taken to that ultra high realisitic finish and the medium is less apparent.
JMO :)
Jocelyn

[jocelynsart]

Mary Ann: I will! I told my husband, Chuck, that I do want to do a camping trip out there, possibly next Summer. I think the kids are old enough and they are great on long car rides.
My sister has always wanted to move there.
Jocelyn

[DanaT]

Thanks for sharing these, Joss. She certainly is talented. She employs unusual lighting. At first I thought the blond man in the t-shirt was being lit from below but then I noticed that just the down plane under his brow ridge is especially light. It is probably more flattering but it made me do a double take when I first saw it.

[jocelynsart]

I know, there is alot about her work that is really unusual, very surreal almost.

[KingCrimson]

Hi Guys-Some great links.Hope you don't mind,but I thought you might also enjoy this link,she gets some really interesting backlit effects.She does acrylic,oil & pastel,and her pastels look like oils!http://www.daniellerichard.com/ancien/francais1.html

[jocelynsart]

Wow, thanks for bringing that link here! I do love her work! She has a very calm and romantic style.
Jocelyn

[scotchpie]

Hi

First time in the portrait forum, I'm usually found in the acrylics list.

Anyway I was getting interested in portraiture, especially the style of a young british artist who although still young is quite a big name with his work selling regularly in London's posh west end galleries for a couple of thousand pounds plus!

His home page is:
www.myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nford/gallery.htm

Can anyone advise me of his technique. It is something I would like to experiment with.


Andrew

[scotchpie]

sorry there should be no www. in the url

try: myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nford/gallery.htm

[jocelynsart]

Hi scotchpie: Actually, that url with the www should work. Anyway, I cut and pasted the second URL and the browser fills in the www anyway and I went to it.
I can see whay he does well. He has that very trendy style that is definately in. Big bold strokes and textures. Loose style with overlays of strokes and such, alot of texture. Contemporary Modern Impressionaism is what I like to call it.
I love it. I like the boots and I love the portrait with the comb like texture shapes.
Basically, upon guessing, I'd say he uses huge brushes and also maybe actual objects to create some of the textures, like a combed trowel, etc. He seems to lay the paint on pretty opaque and it sometimes blends if still damp. He seems to use the paint as dry layers over underneath layers in some cases. Thsi creates natural texture, dragging paint off a brush and it will fall in some spots and not in others, leaving a texture. The more layers, the more depth is created as well as doing light over dark layers.
Email him and ask him maybe? Alot of artists will discuss their work and such with you, especially someone just learning.

[siberart]

Thanks for the link. I checked out a bunch of the other artists too! Sure makes me rethink my own work and makes me want to get better thru their inspiration.

[ldavies]

Hi,

I guess I am the "wonderful portrait artist"

I was checking out my web page and I found a bunch of people from Wetcanvas have been looking at my site. I was very flattered to see that my art was being discussed on Wetcanvas!!!! You can see some more of my figurative work at www.lynndavies.ca

By the way, I'm not from Nova Scotia. I grew up in Ottawa :)

Thanks again for noticing my work!

Lynn

[jocelynsart]

Hi Lynn! lol! Very nice to meet you. Thank you for linking to more of your work.
Inspiration is a very driving force!
Take care, keep painting and thank you for sharing here. :)
Jocelyn

[vltz]

Lynn--your work is so beautiful, I'm drooling!! Wonderful, wonderful!!!

V

[M.A.]

Hi,

I guess I am the "wonderful portrait artist"

I was checking out my web page and I found a bunch of people from Wetcanvas have been looking at my site. I was very flattered to see that my art was being discussed on Wetcanvas!!!! You can see some more of my figurative work at www.lynndavies.ca

By the way, I'm not from Nova Scotia. I grew up in Ottawa :)

Thanks again for noticing my work!

Lynn

:eek: Oops, sorry about that ... your work is just so lovely, we want to claim you as our own! The reason I thought you were from here is that you were mentioned in one of the emails I get from VANS. There must be some kind of connection, they usually only talk about artists from here. :) In any event, welcome to WC! Nice of you to pop in (and sorry about the mixup).

[katju]

How fun to be discussing an artist's work and then have her join in :) Thanks for sharing the link Jocelyn. It's fun to see what other people are doing. Those 3 artists linked above are definitely worth watching.

Kathy

[jocelynsart]

I was hunting around today and here is a really cool woman! Her name is Shelley Laffal. shelleylaffal.com
Very surreal and just amazing paintings of people with weird and exotic surroundings and objects. I love them!
Jocelyn

[artistjan]

Lynn's work is simply gorgeous! The work on the other sites is gorgeous too - I still wonder if these amazingly lifelike portraits can be done in acrylics as well as oils and pastels though.

Thanks for bringing these artists to our attention :)

[mp4grants]

I've enjoyed all the links on this thread. I love admiring talent. No matter how much I admire other people's styles, my portraits always have my style. They just come out the way I see them. I like that and suppose it is the same for other artists.

Michele

[jocelynsart]

I think being comfortable with one's own work makes it even more exciting seeing admirable work, expecially if it is different than one's own. One thing I have passed is that stage I was in as a teen and a young 20 something. Seeing someone's work, becoming upset with mine and then wishing I could be like that other artist; feeling like not bothering anymore. I now look at other artists' work that thrills me as inspiration to keep going and keep painting and allow my own work to branch or stay, whichever it seems to want to do, and to keep pushing. I don't let it make me feel I have to change totally. I can just enjoy other's work!

[mp4grants]

I agree. I find myself studying the style of other artists to try to see their technique and emotion and wonder what the object looked like in real life and try to see the process they went through to interpret that object. Then when I paint I catch myself analyzing my process of interpretation. It's all very fascinating to me.

[gabymerediz]

Jocelyn--how did you get over that feeling of thinking your work was not good when you looked at someone else's? I am deep into that feeling right now. (being in my mid-20s as I am...) I am constantly in a love/hate relationship with my artwork. When I am painting, I love what I am doing, but when I see other artists' work, I feel as though I am inadequate, or don't have enough of a definitive style, and then I go home and look at my work, and I like it again. But I feel a constant pull wanting to experiment with different "styles" so I don't have a consistent base of work (say, to submit to a gallery).