Friday, April 9, 2010

Two Portrait Studies


Here are a couple of paintings from the life room.
In both cases I was not too thrilled by the general pose so I went for a portrait study.
John is a model who is new to me. I loved the almost biblical look that his long hair lends him, and he is really good at holding his pose over a long period.
On the other hand, I have painted Tony many times.
Although he is extremely professional, on this occasion he was having difficulty keeping his eyes open, but his body never moved a jot. I tried to capture that sleepy look in this one hour study.

11 comments:

yaamas said...

An absolutely wonderful portrait of John, PJ. He would be a great model to use in your illustration work. Everything about it is created and rendered beautifully.

PJ Lynch said...

Thanks so much James
regards PJ

Padhraig Nolan said...

I agree - nicely observed and rendered study.

Marco Bucci said...

very cool paintings. Definitely captures life.

PJ Lynch said...

Many thanks Padhraig and Marco,
All the best
PJ

zelyss said...

One quick soul-search question:to the point you've reached,are you satisfied by your work and say to yourself:ok, now I AM good at what I do. Or does an artist always feel inadequate, no matter what he's achieved?

PJ Lynch said...

Great question Georgina.
Personally, I think that any worthwhile artist is always on a tightrope balancing between great self-belief and terrible self-doubt. Once you get too self-satisfied, your work becomes smug and unexciting. Too much angst and feelings of inadequacy and your work gets maudlin and self-indulgent. Too much self-doubt and you won't produce any work at all.
I'm delighted to say that I am still learning and hoping to improve both my illustration work and my painting from life.
All the best
PJ

yaamas said...

PJ, you couldn't have described the feeling and the life of an artist any better. Words of wisdom my friend. WOW!

zelyss said...

Thank you for the answer. I think I can say with certainty now, that I will die (some day) with the same mingled feelings of satisfaction/disappointment about my work. I was kind of hoping that this changes in time.But then again, if it were so, how would we improve...

To think that I admire your work so much, and I haven't managed to get any of your books yet, to be able to look at the complete picture. Trying to, though...

Thanks again for answering.
Georgina

PJ Lynch said...

Thanks James and Georgina.
It's not all doom and gloom though. There should be plenty of highs to keep you going.
Georgina...most of the books are available through Amazon. I hope you'll enjoy them
PJ

zelyss said...

I'm aware of Amazon,I'm just trying to find some of them in my native language since they are children books.Greetings.