PORTRAIT PAINTING GOLD BY JOHANNA SPINKS: The Face of Malibu, One Year Old!

Friday, November 15, 2013

The Face of Malibu, One Year Old!

This month's Face of Malibu appearing in The Malibu Times
Scott Tallal
Executive director, Malibu Film Society
Life sitting, two hours
16x16

The Face of Malibu, featured in The Malibu Times, is now officially one year old! My 13th sitter Scott Tallal, executive director of The Malibu Film Society, appears in this week's addition and it is a moment for me to reflect.

http://www.malibutimes.com/malibu

As readers of this blog will know, it is not my first time taking a town on with my portrait brush. The first outing was in Ventura, C.A, where I painted 58 people in a single life sitting, no photos used, over a two year period.

The sitter was picked to deliberately reflect a slice of the town and what was going on in it during that time period. More importantly the sitter's life story appeared in each edition of The Ventura Breeze newspaper and a voice aired weekly on the Lyn Fairly and Friends radio show.

It was quite a journey with all 58 portrait sketches, and life stories in print, eventually going into the permanent collection of the Museum of Ventura County with a fabulous' end of project' art show sponsored by FOOD Share to a packed house.

I also won the Mayor's 2012 Artist in Community Award, I am sure, as a direct result of this community project funded by myself.

It is hard to repeat a successful project and I certainly wondered if I should even try. I was lucky that Arnold York, publisher of The Malibu Times, was receptive to the concept when I first approached him as the Ventura project was finishing.

Mr. York and I took a few meetings and launched the project to see where it went.

The project in Malibu so far has certainly been different. For one thing, the pace is much slower with just one sitter a month, rather than two, appearing in the paper. Also, there is no determined number of sitters unlike last time.

I decided early on to not try and repeat. Let the project have a life of it's own in a new town without controlling the outcome.

The one thing that remains the same is the life sitting and the concept that we get what we get.

One aspect I really like about the new project is that each sitter actually gets interviewed by a reporter. Before the sitter had a form list of questions that was then edited for the paper. I think the actual interview tailored to the sitter makes for a stronger representation of the sitter's life story. That is important to me. This is not just about the sketches afterall.

After a year doing the new project, I look back with gratitude.

I am not always happy with the sketches. Sometimes I feel anxious putting them out there. I talk to the sitter while I paint. The point being the interaction between us. Getting to know them. This often compromises the sketch result. But I just can't seem to stop myself.

I think of all the portrait greats that went before me like Franz Hals, Phillip De Laszlo, and John Singer Sargent. I just KNOW they talked to their sitters too. The face moves when people talk, well, derr. But if you can catch that quickly with your brush, there's a real 'feel' of the person rather than a static pose producing a static face.

I look back reflecting on the record now of 13 people in Malibu this year that I have been honored to meet and paint.

It is a vulnerable act for both of us each time. I never take it for granted.

Sometimes the sitters are nervous. Anxious even. Sometimes I am, wondering if my brush will perform the way I want it to. And certainly any project is a commitment in time and money for both artist and newspaper publisher. Few know the behind the scene stories. One sketch was painted the day before I went in for hip replacement surgery to meet the deadline. My mind was elsewhere. Thankfully my sitter was kind and gracious around the situation.

All sketches were fitted in around a busy schedule on everyone's part.

So a big "thank you" to each and every one who have made this 'Face of Malibu' year happen: MT's publisher Arnold York, and especially MT's associate editor Knowles Adkisson for working so closely with me on this series.

I also thank the journalists Homaira Shifa and Catalina Wyre for their insightful interviews with each sitter. The sketches would be nothing without the life stories, in words, behind them.

Mostly, I thank the sitters for placing their trust in me.

I look forward to seeing what the next year brings.

None of these portrait sketches are for sale.