31.8.08

Just a Portrait

But the first portrait I've completed in in two years:



This is our Sicilian Neighbor, Giuseppe Costa, 82 years old and full of surprises.

This was painted from life, over the course of several sessions of varying length. Also using a slightly different approach than usual. I may go back and do some additional work on the right hand side of the shirt which is, right now, too big a block of color.

11 comments:

Jesuit John said...

I love it!

Theodore said...

this is lovely Ben.

Margaret Mayer said...

What a nice portrait Ben. I really like the soft edges around the hair and shirt. I agree with you regarding the large block of color. Also, the warm gray triangle in the lower right is a little distracting. The flesh tones are beautiful. I bet this guy has a few stories to tell. I can almost imagine his personality. Great job!

Ben Hatke said...

Thanks, Maggie! I'm glad you think the hair came out. I tend to be a pretty loose painter, so sometimes it works and sometimes not so much.

I can't figure out where that grey triangle came from. It's not on the actual portrait, so it must be a shadow from my desk or something. I'm finding that i?m really not very good at taking pictures of paintings.

Hopefully this has warmed me up for another portrait. Next up I'm going to try to finally do a proper portrait of my wife, Anna.

Unknown said...

Wow Ben! I had no idea how versatile you are.

Ben Hatke said...

Yeah, I have a lot of different interests. Sometimes I think I would be better off if I could concentrate on a single thing.

I don't paint as often as i would like to and I kind of have a love-hate relationship with it. I actually started this picture over three times, and on three separate canvases. And by the third start I was really upset.

Anonymous said...

Lots of expression in a simple painting--very nice. Sophisticated. What if you did your illustrations like this?

Ben Hatke said...

If I did my illustrations like this I would never ever meet a single deadline.

Ben Hatke said...

NC Wyeth did it, but still...

Margaret Mayer said...

Ben, I know what you mean about having a hard time taking pictures of paintings. I am getting a lot of glare whenever I attempt this. I wish that there was an easy/no fail way to do this.

I think you should paint your wife's portrait. I painted a portrait of my husband once but it was very difficult because he could not keep a straight face. He clowns around too much sometimes and we both laughed at my work when it was complete.

regina doman said...

Ben, beautiful and definitely 'yours!' I don't know why, but I see "hatke-ness" in this... lovely!