On portraits and attributes

Jessica, 60 x 80 cm, acrylic on canvas, ©2007 Julie Galante.

I’ve been thinking a lot about attributes recently. In portraiture, an attribute is an object included to help the viewer identify the subject, or to communicate something about the subject. Artists’ self portraits often include paint brushes or a palette, for example. Catholic saints are often recognizable because of their attributes, such as St. John the Baptist’s hairy cloak or the many arrows poking through St. Sebastian’s body. In traditional portraiture, a scholarly lady might be depicted with her hand on a stack of correspondence, a sailor with his arm resting atop a giant anchor. Attributes can be subtle or obvious, literal or symbolic.

Jen, 40 x 50 cm, oil on canvas, ©2010 Julie Galante.

While strolling through the academic portraits in Munich’s Neue Pinakothek recently, I started thinking about how I could incorporate attributes into my own work. With few exceptions, my portraits tend to depict the subject alone and out of context. I rarely include a distinguishable background, and even clothing details are usually left out. If I were to set out to include this traditional part of portraiture in my new paintings, how would I do it? Would I be literal, choosing an object from the subject’s daily life? Would I let my subjects choose their own attributes, or would I assign them myself? Would I make these attributes about description, aspiration, or something else entirely?

What if I just chose the object that a person spends the most time with? For many of us in today’s world, that would end up being a piece of technology: a cell phone, a laptop, an ipod. But even for those most connected to their devices of choice, would this be the item you chose to define yourself? Could an ipad be symbolic of something more noble or abstract, such as a love of learning, or games, or communication?

What about you? If I were to paint your portrait, what would your attribute be?

Tags: attributes, painting, portrait, portraiture, thoughts

Puttering around the studio

This has happened before.

I have a big, several-month expanse of time in the studio ahead of me. Time to buckle down, get productive, take my art seriously. I’ve been playing around long enough; it’s time to make a Series Of Work. Time to paint a bunch of big canvases, sticking to a similar subject, or a similar theme, or hell even similar colors might do it. All real artists work in series. Time for you to start.

Like a stubborn child I resist. I start lots of different unrelated canvases, different sizes, colors, feelings. I re-work a small self-portrait, paint some dark red cherries, and start four different-sized canvases with scenes from unrelated places. Or I don’t paint at all. But you need a series. How are you supposed to be taken seriously as an artist if you don’t produce many paintings that look eerily similar to each other?

Time and again, pressuring myself to produce a series gets me nowhere. I can’t decide if this is because A) I am being too easy on myself, undisciplined, letting my fear of failure stop me from doing what I should be, or B) I am being too hard on myself, and the way I work now is the way I work best, and it’s the way I should continue to work.

The only thing I have figured out is that this approach isn’t going to start working for me any time soon. So what’s the alternative? Spend the summer painting any and every idea that catches my fancy? Try it all and see what I end up with? I can’t decide if that’s a good idea or not.

But it sure sounds fun.

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Tags: thoughts

Daily Painting: more Munich

Central Munich study (Rischart), 18 x 24 cm, oil on canvas, ©2011 Julie Galante. [SOLD]

And we’re back to Munich paintings. I do love the architecture in this city, with all its pointy spires and fairy-tale turrets. This view is just off the Viktualienmarkt, right in the center of the city. It’s a small, elevated area which usually contains relatively few people compared to the crowded market and surrounding streets below.

Tags: cityscape, daily painting, Germany, Munich, oils, painting

Daily painting: self portrait, pink and purple

Self portrait in pink and purple, 30 x 30 cm, oil on canvas, ©2011 Julie Galante.

I didn’t set out to paint myself using mostly two colors, but somehow this is what I ended up with at the end of the afternoon. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll keep working on it or leave it as-is. The background is just blank canvas at the moment.

This painting was done from life, me staring at my reflection in a small mirror propped up on my art table next to my easel.

Tags: daily painting, oils, painting, portrait

Daily painting: dangerous veggies

Study: Broccoli, 15 x 15 cm, oil on canvas, €65, ©2011 Julie Galante.

Here in Germany we are in the middle of a mysterious outbreak of scary mutant killer E.coli infections. Even though it has been more than a month since it started, no culprit has been identified, although we’re being told to cook all vegetables before eating them. Needless to say, all of this has kind of put a damper on the delight I usually feel when perusing the farmers market for some beautiful new vegetable to paint (and then eat). Suddenly having a head of broccoli in my studio feels about as unsanitary as setting up a still life featuring a raw chicken breast.

So, um, expect to see some completely different subject matter popping up real soon!