Painting Jesse

Painting of Jesse in progress, 20x16 oil on panel

While I am waiting for the underpainting for Erik's Pond to dry I turned my attention back to the painting of my granddaughter Jesse that is in progress.  It is still pretty rough and you can see the lavender gray underpainting showing through and the forms are loosely sketched in oil.  I have just begun refining and adding more color.  It is entering the fun stage when I can start developing the light patterns more.  Also, I find I love to paint silver so perhaps tomorrow I will work further on those pieces but I will have to resist the temptation to go too far with them before finishing work on the background and window.
      I don't do a lot of figurative work but I want to do more. In May I was involved in a project that I call Mark's Model Project in honor of Mark Ingraham who thought it up.  Mark is a wonderful painter and my sponsor for membership in the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, but that is another story.  Anyway, Mark wanted to have a 2 hour photo shoot with a model using various changes of clothes, props and settings.  Some contemporary some more romantic.  I suggested my 20 year old granddaughter Jesse who would soon be home from college and I was able to procure the use of the living room in Old Main at the Madeira School for the shoot.  This is an amazing room with beautiful old furniture and huge french doors opening to a stone terrace which overlooks Mather Gorge on the Potomac.  Perfect, and the weather that Sunday was gorgeous.  Joining us were painters Barbara Nuss and Meg Walsh (also Washington Society of Landscape Painters) who along with Mark and me brought a lot of props and clothing for Jesse.  Meg's stunning kimona was worth a painting of its own and Mark had a Chinese umbrella so I think you will be seeing that combo on Jesse sometime this year on this blog.  We each took a different position so we captured Jesse from many different angles.  Afterwards we burned our images onto discs that we gave to one another.  We all now have a huge photo reference for gestures, lighting, furniture, the draping of fabric and the figure in the landscape as well as interior. Jesse was an amazing model and although she said she felt a little nervous in the beginning you would never know it.  The hard part was deciding which pose to paint first. Lucky me, I also have Jesse home this summer and available to sit.
Great idea Mark!