| Margaret Wu covered allergies as they relate
to artists, and Margaret Holland Sargent showed us how she uses digital
photography to aid her in her work. No, that's not all. Master of Ceremonies
John Howard Sanden gave us a blueprint for success, in his own inimitable
evangelical style; Richard Whitney gave a slide presentation to make various
technical and aesthetic points, including the importance of observing the
principle of selective focus in painting (my term); Richard Schmid covered
alla prima painting in an inspiring talk and slide presentation, and there
was a round table discussion of a number of issues important to portrait
artists, involving the ASOPA Advisory Board and all of the event's featured
speakers. There were portrait painting demonstrations by Carl Samson, David
A. Leffel, Michael Del Priore and John Howard Sanden (who chose Allan Banks
as his model), each of whom approached it in his own unique way and arrived
at a good result in a remarkably short time. Significant quotes abounded.
David Leffel borrowed one from Woody Allen, to wit: "Eighty percent of success
is just showing up." Leffel's great sense of humor kept his model's expression
animated throughout his demonstration. I asked him if the kidding around
was done with that purpose in mind, and he said simply, "No, that's just
me." The competition boiled down to twenty Finalists, with many viewers
and judges remarking on the unprecedented general high level of quality
of this year's submissions. In years past, the competition was narrowed
down to ten Finalists, but it was decided to increase it to twenty this
year due to the large number of excellent works submitted. Alas, we could
not all win awards, but this is how it ended up: the $5,000 Grand Prize
(Best of Show) went to Zhang Li; Steven Levin's small self-portrait won
both the $2,500 President's Award and the $2,000 People's Choice Award;
First Prize went to Henry Wingate; Jeff Bass won Second Prize with his large
3/4-length portrait of former President George Bush (yes, a commissioned
work), and Paul De Lorenzo won Third Place with his superb self-portrait.
Honorable Mentions went to Sam Knecht, Yuqi Wang, Connie Erickson, and Miles
Mathis. Those of us who did not win will no doubt construe it as an incentive
to work that much harder to improve what we do, and resolve to come back
next year with still stronger work. |
Richard Ormond presents Richard Schmid (left) with the Sargent Medal, ASOPA's
highest honor. Later, Richard Schmid takes time to sign autographs.
"Schmid – what can I say? Passionate, emotional, mindblowing,
etc. His slide show was the highest point of the show and I place it right
alongside my tour of the Sargent show in Boston for the sheer power it had
over me
. . . it is a privvilege to support your organization and I look forward
to the next Portrait Arts Festival."
-Christian David Kolupski |
