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Portrait of Mother and Daughter
Irene & Helen, 60" x 40", oil on canvas, April 2004Every figurative painter wants to paint nudes. It was a real coup for Tom to convince his family to pose for this risqué view of his wife and daughter. The fictitious scene combines the windows of the studio with the view out the window of their summer vacation hotel room. The North Carolina Emerald Isle view faces the unusual direction of south. Irene’s family is sitting on the viewing platform. The bed is his daughters and on the bed post is her first knot. Tom learned that it probably is not a good idea to paint your family is such a revealing manner and then have it hang in the living room.CompositionThe great portrait of Tom's wife and daughter. Originally it was set to be a 4' x 3' canvas but it was just not big enough for a full length actual size portrait. The proportions of a canvas are somewhat locked in and the larger size is still in the 3/4 proportion arena. The final canvas size is 60" x 40". This is a size that has never been used by Tom before but still holds the familiar proportion. Finding the right size for the canvas was a lot like a hunt for a thought that had not be had, yet. The bed is Helen's bed, the window is from the studio and the view out the window is from Emerald Isle, North Carolina where Irene vacationed as a child and the Moore family still visits very year. Tom will be painting Irene's whole family on the steps and benches. The size of the canvas makes these figures quite large about five inches high. This composition was done in PhotoShop using ten layers. It is the first time Tom has used PhotoShop to do extensive composition. The real trick is to learn to erase, layer, distort and scale quickly. The next step is to stretch the new canvas and apply a new layer of gesso by scraping on and then scraping with a razor blade repeating the process until the canvas is perfectly smooth and the metal from the razor blade creates a mottled gray color. The gray can then be removed with alcohol and the drawing is done with pencil from projections of the various images used. Painting then begins with Helen's face and then Irene's face. September 18, 2004Tom is slowly getting on with the portrait of Irene & Helen. He finally has the flesh done and their clothes. Now it is on to the volumes of sheets on the bed. The camisole proved a good example of things to come in the fabric. The idea of the painting is that it is not that really matches the model in front of him but the idea of it on the canvas. It turns out that the fabric becomes metaphor for the affections and thoughts toward the subject. October 22Work is finished with the windows, bed and bodies. The view out the windows is North Carolina Beach with at least fifteen of Irene's family sitting on the precipice above the dunes. November 19Work has begun with the miniature family portrait. Everybody who comes to the Emerald Isle Beach, North Carolina is there. Jimmy Eubanks starts it off on the left corner next is Brent and Millie Price. In the center of the platform is Lucy with Dalton and Jackson below her and then Jess nearest to the vacation home. Rounding out the family is Jay and Linda on the right. Even though the unveiling is November 27th, work may not be completed on all the little figures. The work was finished in April of 2004. http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/chatterton.htm Thomas Chatterton1752-1770
Thomas Chatterton was buried in the Shoe Lane Workhouse Cemetery, Holborn, London. (This cemetery no longer exists and the whereabouts of his remains is not known.) On August 24th 1770 Chatterton's body was found in the attic of 39 Brooke Street. He died as a result of arsenic poisoning. However, it is not known for certain whether he committed suicide or whether he was attempting to cure himself of venereal disease. He was only 17 years old. Chatterton is famous for fabricating the existence and poetry of a 15th century Bristol monk called Thomas Rowley. So convincing were his forgeries that even Horace Walpole temporarily regarded Rowley as an genuine writer. Chatterton's tragic early death had a profound effect on the Romantic Poets. Wordsworth referred to him as the "marvellous boy" and Keats dedicated Endymion to him. The fascination surrounding Chatterton's premature death was further fuelled by Henry Wallis' famous portrait of 1856. However, the portrait was not based on a real likeness of Chatterton but was modelled instead on a young man called George Meredith.
The Death of Chatterton O! Synge untoe mie roundelaie, O! droppe the brynie teare wythe mee, Daunce ne moe atte hallie daie, Lycke a reynynge ryver bee; Mie love ys dedde, Gon to hys death-bedde, Al under the wyllowe tree. From Song from AElla |
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