Course Syllabus

Portrait Painting / Rutgers Community Arts / Valerie Suter

June 9^th – July 28^th / Wednesdays 6:30-8:30pm EST

“The Oxford English Dictionary deﬁnes portraiture as ‘a representation or delineation of a person, especially of the face, made from life, by drawing, painting, photography, engraving, etc.; a likeness’. Other semantic roots of the term attach it to the idea of likeness: for example, the Italian word for portrait, ritratto, comes from the verb ritrarre, meaning both ‘to portray’ and ‘to copy or reproduce’. However, this simple deﬁnition belies the complexities of portraiture. Portraits are not just likenesses but works of art that engage with ideas of identity as they are perceived, represented, and understood in different times and places.”

- Shearer West, Portraiture, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2004

“I’ve always felt the portrait is an occasion for marks to happen. I’ve never viewed the portrait as about the sitter. Even when I go to the National Portrait Gallery, I’m not thinking about the sitter; I’m thinking about how the artist chose that color or that highlight. It becomes about the time, place, and context… this idea of how malleable identity is when you’re looking at a portrait. Are we seeing a portrait of a subject or are we seeing a portrait of the artist?”

- Toyin Ojih Odutola, Interview Magazine, December 20, 2015

Course Description:

In this course, students will learn how to paint portraits that capture likeness and explore stylistic, narrative, and psychological expression. The course will include instruction on composition, brushwork, color, value, texture, and a range of painting materials and techniques, as well as continuous discussion of portraiture’s historical and contemporary significance. We will look at examples of portraits by diverse artists in art history as well as artists working today, including Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kerry James Marshall, Alice Neel, Max Beckmann, David Hockney, Amy Sherald, Lubaina Himid, Nicole Eisenman, Titus Kaphar, and Jordan Casteel, and will recontextualize examples of artists’ work that have been excluded by/included in the Eurocentric art historical canon. Students will have opportunities to paint from life, from references, and from imagination, and the course will incorporate slide presentations, demonstrations, and critiques of student work.

Notes:

- I strongly encourage keeping a sketchbook throughout the course in which to sketch, make studies, and develop ideas.

- A class blog will be our site for posting and sharing images and work made throughout the course.

Web address: https://portraitpaintingsummer2021.blogspot.com/

- If you have any questions or need to reach me at any time during the course session, feel free to contact me at valerie.suter@gmail.com (cc: communityarts@mgsa.rutgers.edu)

Course Schedule:

June 9th

Introduction

Slide lecture: Drawing as preparation for painting – line and value

Demo and line and value studies based on black and white photo

For next class: Finish drawing, try making another portrait study using paint, find 2 or 3 images of portraits to share, prepare a new surface for next class (use raw umber or a red acrylic for the ground)

June 16th