I have taken a few classes by Tara Leaver, but just realized this week that I have not shared my experiences with you. So check this out…
First published April 20, 2024: As part of The 100 Day Project, I am painting portraits of my heroes. So I am getting quite a bit of practice drawing and using different mediums, but can always use more inspiration and instruction. Tara Leaver, who is an artist I have followed for years on Instagram, offered a free “taste” of her Art Inspired II class, and I took it. It was great fun! Her class is a dive into several women artists and this free offer was centered on Marlene Dumas. Marlene is arguably most famous for a series she did of what she called “rejects”, portraits that are not necessarily pretty, but which are very interesting. Tara includes a video about Marlene, who is from South Africa. Tara’s exercise challenges us to paint a series of portraits from photo references in just a few moments each, using ink and a variety of painting tools.
I did five random portraits from my photo reference collection in less than 15 minutes. It was really fun, and surprisingly, some of my paintings actually show the essence of the person. I love that! Especially after all of the work I have done trying to perfect my portraits — not to make them exactly as the person, but to capture the person’s essence. Interestingly, two of my subjects are in baseball caps, which adds a different dimension to the portrait.
Here is a shot with my photo references:
My grandson, top left, my first daughter bottom left, my son top middle, my second daughter, bottom middle, then me:
And here are my portraits of each. Can you tell who goes to what?
I share these – not because they are good art, but because they show a process that allows you to experiment without worrying about the outcome. I think that is what Tara is trying to show in this lesson.
I have taken several classes from Tara and each has inspired me in different areas of my work… I hope you will check out her classes…
Happy Arting this week…