Painting and photography

I returned, this week, to one of my favorite models, who reliably posts wonderful photos of herself on Instagram that are just begging to be painted. But I started reflecting, while halfway through this one, on what it is that I'm doing, and whether it is truly creative or is just sponging off of someone else's creativity.

The portraits I paint are, for the most part, faithful to the reference photos. There's a different background, usually, and I may crop parts out or pick an unusual angle, but I am always attempting to capture a likeness and sometimes also the clothing and accoutrements provided by the model and photographer, so...what, exactly, am I producing that is my own? Yes, I'm showing my skill for faithful copying, and sometimes adding my own color sensibilities to a black and white photo or to one whose colors aren't pleasing, but otherwise...?

It's true that most people who paint people use models of some kind, or photographs, but unless it's a commissioned work meant to look like its subject, often that's just a jumping-off point for an image that the artist then adapts to their own aesthetic to the point where the subject would be unrecognizable to their own mother. Up to this point in my painting "career," I have taken pride in my ability to catch a likeness, but does it go beyond skill and become art simply because I have rendered it in paint? I'm not sure.

I know that I am enjoying making these backgrounds by using a stencil to mimic nature or wallpaper or whatever. I know that I like being able to make the model pop with my use of color. But I'm going to have to think about the rest of it and see whether it's time for a shift in perspective.

This is, once again, Jenell del Cid, dressed up to look (at least to me) sort of like a Spanish flamenco dancer, with her upswept 'do, long beaded earrings, and waist-cinching dress. You have caught her checking her look in her hand mirror before she goes out for the evening. Her dress was odd, and I thought about changing it, but in the end left it vaguely similar—it was a flower print, but it wasn't an all-over pattern; instead, the flowers were scattered here and there on a paler field. It almost felt too busy to add the flowers, against that stencil background, but I went ahead.

This one is a little more "painterly" and not quite as blended. I had a little trouble with the scan (I have to do 12x16s in two parts and Photoshop them together), so the actual painting has more hair at the top and a little breathing room, and the mirror is also not quite so close to the border as it is here.

Acrylics, pencil, stencil, on thin birch board, 12x16 inches.