FIGURATIVE and PORTRAITS

With today's technology, traditional portraiture can be accomplished beautifully through photography. The digital revolution has further pushed the medium, creating the ability to readily enhance the photographic portrait with many effects such as soft focus, color and tonal manipulation, and combining elements such as backgrounds and other photos.

Why, then, do a portrait in paint? Because a really gifted artist can express the energy or character of the person.  Let me rephrase what Salvatore Del Deo, a reknown portrait artist and also a mentor, says:  'When painting a subject, the artist should record not only the image of the person but also capture their spirit and energy ...  in an arrangement of having the subject pose for you, the accomplished painter records the air between the subject and canvas.'   This, a photograph will never be able to convey.