“Mr. Leavitt” 8×10 study oil on board 2014

 I saw this man (an artist) at the Oregon Society of Artists meeting in October 2014 and immediately know that I have to paint him.  I asked permission to take a picture and transformed the rather mediocre iPhone picture int0 this beautiful portrait. 

It was painted straight on Ambersand board without any preparation of the board.  I want to keep the white of the board untouched as much as possible.  I used the Zorn palette (Titanium white, Payne’s grey, Yellow ochre, and Cad Red medium)

I stopped touching the portrait after 90 minutes or so with the intention to keep the painterly look.  I could go on with a softer brush and “feather” out the brush mark and slowly make it photographic.  But to me, paintings that look like a photograph is a failure of the artist’s skill and vision.

Khanh N. Huynh, MD