We are delighted to be supporting THE STATE OF US, a new pop-up exhibition from Illustrators Ireland opening this Friday, Facebook details here. We sat down with one of the co-organisers, illustrator and artist Steve Doogan, last month so we thought it would be a good idea to see what we can expect by chatting with some of the contributing artists. Here is part one…
Sir Walter Raleigh, Towers & Tales Lismore Story Festival, Portrait Exhibition
How did you approach the brief? Were you more concerned with likeness or trying to capture essence/personality? Are you conscious of the “sitter” response?
I corresponded via email with the sitter once I read their biography. My intention was to look for an angle which would somehow allow me into their personality. Likeness is obviously important in portraiture but capturing an essence of the person would appeal to me more. I wanted to reveal something about the sitter that people could take away. I’m confident that they will recognise elements of what they revealed to me about themselves.
Sneak Peak from Peter’s piece for THE STATE OF US
Do you know the sitter personally?
No.
Amy Winehouse by Mia Donnelly aged 7 (Peter’s Daughter!!)
Can you share a portrait by another artist you admire and explain why?
Amy Winehouse by Mia Donnelly, straight to the point and instantly recognisable.
Poster design inspired by Bowies ‘Word on a Wing’ for the ‘PIN UPS’ exhibition as part of Dublin Bowie Festival 2017.
How did you approach the brief? Were you more concerned with likeness or trying to capture essence/personality? Are you conscious of the “sitter” response?
I like when illustration is a bit surreal, so I was aiming for a somewhat accurate portrait surrounded by elements that were more abstract and graphic. It’s a bit of a departure from my usual style which is flatter and more line based. I often feel like a portrait is unfinished if there isn’t a concept of some sort, so there’s definitely a nod to his personality in there as well.
Sneak Peak of Lauren’s piece for THE STATE OF US
Do you know the sitter personally?
No I’ve never met him!
Can you share a portrait by another artist you admire and explain why?
Greg Ruth has been a big inspiration lately when it comes to portraits. There’s something so atmospheric and otherworldly about his pencil drawings, and his rendering skills are off the charts. He’s also well known for working with dry brush and ink.
Volume, Oil on gesso
How did you approach the brief? Were you more concerned with likeness or trying to capture essence/personality? Are you conscious of the “sitter” response?
I’m not used to painting portraits, and haven’t made one in a couple of years. I’ve drawn and painted people for sure, but a portrait is something different. There’s an expectation to achieve a likeness, which is maybe one of the reasons that a lot of portraits end up so tight. I’d normally work the other way around; start with a subject and then go any direction with it and the end result is often quite divergent from the beginning. I’m also used to working on particular surfaces and generally on a smaller scale so I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach it. In the studio I cut a couple of pieces of fabriano to size and went at it with a mix of materials; pencil, pastels, watercolour, acrylics, chalk and charcoal. One of them ended up looking more like a formal portrait, I chose the other one, which was a bit more open. I brought in into photoshop and fiddled around adjusting levels and adding a few touches. I wasn’t sure whether to show the original or the print, but opted for the later. I guess it’s hard to capture personality or indeed a likeness if you don’t know the person, but the sitter I was assigned has a very kind face in the photographs that she sent. There were also pictures of her kids and one of herself as a child, which says something too. A warmth and depth came across for sure and I tried to capture something of that.
Sneak Peak of Ben’s piece for THE STATE OF US
Do you know the sitter personally?
No, I’ve never met the sitter before. It’ll be interesting to meet her to see if I managed to get anything of her into the work.
Marlene Dumas, ‘for whom the bell tolls’, 2008
Can you share a portrait by another artist you admire and explain why?
As John Donne wrote; “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Marlene Dumas’ painting ‘For whom the bell tolls’ with such economical use of fluid fleshy brushstrokes somehow manages to capture a lot of what it is to be human. It’s interesting how it’s so wrong in a traditional sense, objectively the paint is erroneously handled, with some of the features misplaced, but it still works. In this way it highlights the expressive potential of painting, whereas so much contemporary portrait painting seems to aim for a photographic realism. The painting was in part a response to the death of her mother and it’s fragility and emotional intensity along with the title acts as a reminder of an old latin saying ‘Memento Mori’ (Remember you must die). Van Gogh’s loose and remarkably contemporary looking study ‘Skull with burning cigarette’ seems to suggest something similar, although perhaps more like ‘you must die, remember to not take life too seriously’.
We will be adding more interviews and sneak peaks over the next few days.
THE STATE OF US
Presentated by Illustrators Ireland in asscociation with OFFSET.
Friday 16th June, 7:30PM
The Chocolate Factory