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Michael Britton, Verna, 2021
I paint for the love of painting. It is my life and my livelihood. My first love is portraiture.
In realist portrait painting there are two historical modes of thought: the Academie (Ecole des Beaux Arts) which is a classically rendered approach; and the Munich School which emphasized the painterly, bravura method. I subscribe to the latter. For me painting bravura is juicier and fresher.
I was trained in New York. First at the Art Students League and, later, at the New York Academy of Art. It was in the early, formative years of NYAA that I met and studied under Francis Cunningham who continued the teachings of his mentor Edwin Dickinson who had a major influence on the Abstract Expressionists and subsequent development of American art.
Dickenson was mentored by Charles Hawthorne (1872 - 1930) who, in turn, studied under William Merritt Chase whose Chase School of Art morphed into The Parsons School of Design.
That is my lineage and it is the teachings of my predecessors, , a proven historicity, that I am endeavoring to pass onto you.
The result is a painterly, bravura expression girded by a solid understructure of plastic form.
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Left: William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), Spanish Girl, 1885
Center: Charles Hawthorne (1872-1930), Portugese Fisher Boy, 1930
Right: Edwin Dickenson (1892-1978), Sandra, 1947
Learning to paint portraits requires a specialized skill-set beginning with learning to strike shape. That is where both the likeness and expression resides.
Most beginners neglect this all-important foundation and soon find themselves vainly seeking out secrets and sleights of hand and brush that will somehow, someway, make up for their lack of a foundation. There are no shortcuts.
As a teacher of over thirty years, teaching portrait painting to thousands of artists, many of whom are now successful artists, I have sadly witnessed millions of shortcuts in painting. They all conclude at the same dismal destination. A failed painting.
When writing for the ArtNews magazine edition of September 1949, Elaine de Kooning asked Edwin Dickinson 'What exactly is drawing?'
Dickinson's succinct reply: 'It's about how wide, how tall and what are the angles.'
And that's where you begin. Learning to accurately assess width and height. Proportion. And soon acquiring the ability to strike shape with a laser precision.
This is taught in the first part of Module 1: Shape & Proportion. It is also available as an on-demand video workshop.
Module 1: Shape & Proportion is designed to both teach and to self-verify the accuracy of your drawing vis-a-vis drawing sight-size from the supplied templates.
Try PORTRAIT PAINTER TV for free for two weeks. You've everything to gain!
And I'll notify you two days before your free trial ends so that you can make an informed decision.
The Workshops are also available as individual on-demand videos.
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Michael Britton
Artacademy.com, 115 Chausee Jules Cesar, Eaubonne, Paris 95600, France
CONTACT: Michael-Britton-Workshops@artacademy.com
PORTRAIT PAINTER TV is a streaming video channel hosted on Vimeo, a New York corporation.