Portrait commissions
Art
In late 2018 I received a request by email to paint a series of portrait commissions. I travelled oversees to meet the sitter, who unexpectedly became a muse and inspired me to create figurative paintings with greater detail, nuance, and landscape backgrounds. Her portraits are full length and athletic. The first has not been publicly unveiled as it’s part of a suite that’s yet to be completed. The second is near the end of the study stage. Due to size and detail, it will take around two years to paint. The intensive project is currently paused while we all focus on our own lives for a while. Given I am not primarily a portrait artist, for me this means focussing on creating new bodies of work that would traditionally be shown at an exhibition but instead sharing them online – with artworks delivered globally on completion – as the series develops.
From 2023 to 2024 I painted face portraits of Neha Kale, Natalie Forsyth and Howard Holmes to demonstrate a capacity to portray a range of features. These works took around eight months each.
While developing the way I paint portraits, I researched the work of artists who came before me, in part to learn from masters and in part to ensure I build upon rather than repeat what has already been done. Among other books, I’ve studied Bridget Riley: Working Drawings by Bridget Riley, Alexandra Tommasini, Rosa Gubay; Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances by Arne Glimcher; Rothko Chapel: an Oasis for Reflection by Pamela G. Smart and Stephen Fox; Work by Helmut Newton and Passion by Design: The Art and Times of Tamara de Lempicka by Baroness Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall and Charles Phillips. I also researched The Rouen Cathedral series by Claude Monet online. One of my favourite articles about it is Monet's towering obsession by Sebastian Smee.
I love Bridget Riley’s use of block colours and abstract shapes to create a shimmery sense of movement; the stylised sculptural shading, insouciance and eye-rolling petulance of Tamara de Lempicka's portraits; the smouldering sexuality and film still quality of Helmut Newton's photographs, in which he manages to make each woman a subject, not an object; the subtle nuances of colour in Agnes Martin’s quietly luminous, mystic minimalism and her writings on beauty and perception; the wordless poetry and emotion in Mark Rothko’s paintings, especially the huge, monochromatic series housed in Rothko Chapel; and the way the Rouen Cathedral emerges like a glistening mirage in Monet’s paintings.
Traditionally, a portrait is a way for future generations to know someone who lived in a preceding time. Unlike my early work – inspired by the early works of Cindy Sherman and Ed Ruscha – there is nothing ironic in my new paintings, no reflection or critique of society. Instead I focus on giving the viewer a sense of how it feels to know the sitter.
Going forward, I intend to accept major portrait commissions only occasionally, in between developing bodies of artwork. If you’re interested in commissioning a portrait and would like to know more about the process, please email me via the contact form on my website, hazeldooney.com .
