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What is a Portrait Anyway?

Shelby Robbins

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November 12th, 2014 - 10:43 AM

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What is a Portrait Anyway?

I just got a new job working in a furniture arts gallery. I have absolutely no knowledge about furniture or wood. Thus far, it has been a learning experience. Even the furniture lingo feels foreign. I have heard things like

“Honey, it’s time to introduce more curves into our room”

“I’m looking for a seductive, yet gentle wood.”

“Its not about what the table outwardly looks like, but the feeling it brings to the room”

This type of language reminds me of my own thoughts when doing portraits. Specifically nude portraits of my fine lady friends.

Some artists strive for photographic realism when creative portraits. However, I fall into the category of artists who create representative portrayals of the sitters. I see a portrait as a record of an interaction between the artist and the sitter, both of whom contribute to the portraits form and content. I don’t approach the canvas determined to create a perfect mirror reflection of the person in front of me. The portrait is much more than that. It is a complex construction of the sitters identity and relationships, including the relationship between me and the sitter, and the sitter and the world. Creating portraits this way can serve a range of functions such as expressing power or declaring social status. Modern portraits highlight an emotion or feeling, or larger statements about a society and a given point in time.

Like my fellow furniture craftsmen, I appreciate the feeling and presence of the artwork more than the actual physical details – although those details can completely make a piece.

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