Rethinking Contemporary Portraiture

I created this portrait from 3 sources. The young man whom I know from my watercolor class at LACC, modeled for the subject, the tree on the top left is a magnificent old gnarly pine that I discovered during my travels in Florida and the landscape on the bottom right was inspired by a Korean painting from the Chosun period. The challenge in painting this watercolor was to integrate the three sources in a manner that brought them together into one flowing style. Portrait in a landscape setting has always been my favorite and this one I particularly love for the delicate muted palette, the feeling of meditative stillness and the thought provoking depth both in the man's expression and the disappearing horizon line just below his chin. His garment came from my imagination, risky though that can be in a specifically planned layout, and I just let it happen as it unfolded from brush to paper. If the collar seems a bit odd, I believe it may have come from a subconscious thought that occurred to me about the young man. He reminded me of a crane with his long neck and slightly cocked head as if listening for the cry of his lost mate. His very thin chest seems to protrude strangely like two displaced shoulder pads that very well may be stuffed with bird feathers. I experienced a heightened joy when I painted this portrait. And that intense pleasure awakened something very powerful within. I no longer am interested in painting an ordinary portrait, to copy someone's likeness or even the cliche and abused statement, to capture their spirit, as if that is an easy thing to do. My path has been revealed to me through this exercise and I see the possibility of reconnecting one with their ancestry and maybe even a past life, if just for fun. It still makes me smile just thinking of it.