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- Pete
- New Jersey
- Since my first trip to Gettysburg as a young boy, I've been captivated by History. I get it from my mom. Although she passed away when I was just 13, she still had an influence on me. All our family vacations were stitched around some historical site. So, history geeks are in my blood. I'm a graphic designer by profession and a semi-amateur painter. I love to explore history through my paintbrush. I've also done living history to get a first hand feel for "what it was like". Looking at history through the eyes of the common man (or woman) and understanding the personal, human drama is really the spice that flavors the historical stew!
Me at the Winslow Homer Studio
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Portrait Painting in American History
This is a small 6x6" oil painting I did of, well, I don't know who. I will find out who she is eventually because she'll be painting me. To get the scoop, check out the blog Different Strokes from Different Folks. It's a very cool concept and I hope to be able to swap portraits.
So, this exercise got me to thinking about the portrait artists in American history. I am, after all, a history geek. Let's take a look at a couple of my favorites.
The place to start would be one of, if not the, first famous portrait painter in the yet unborn United States, John Singleton Copley. He was born in 1738 and was only one of a few painters in the Colonies at the time. Consequently, his work was in great demand and he painted some of the most influential people of the time: John Hancock, Samuel Adams and John Adams to name a few. If you ever have the chance to see his work in person, you can't help but feel that you are in the very presence of those famous founding fathers. It's a lesson in the power of the painted portrait. Copley was not just a great painter either. He was a master at marketing himself and eventually left America in 1774 for London. His popularity flourished there and he never came back. To see a great collection of his work, click here.
You just can't talk about American portrait painters without mentioning John Singer Sargent can you? Though he was only barely an American. Like Copley, he spent a great deal of his life in Europe. In fact, he was born in Florence, Italy to American parents. Sargent didn't even visit the States until he was 21 years old, and that was largely to retain his citizenship. Being American must have had some importance to his I suppose. His great influence was of the French impressionists and he learned to make every brush stroke count. In his portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson, Stevenson sits in a chair with his legs crossed. Sargent suggests Stevenson's shoe with a single brush stroke representing the shine of the smooth leather. It looks breezy and effortless but that is one well thought out brush stroke. If you have some time to kill there's a ton of his work here.
So, check out the links and enjoy some really great artwork of the past. Oh, and Happy New Year too!
We Can't Let this Bank Fail
As the Depression dragged on, those meals became more and more meager. Donations dried up as wealth evaporated. Soon, just getting a handout became a full time job. It was stale bread and thin soup if you were lucky and that was hardly enough to satisfy that hollow, hungry feeling.
Well, history does repeat. The economy is reeling again and people are starting to get hungry. Personal finances are tight and there's less in the budget for charity. But, things aren't Great Depression bad yet! FoodBank shelves are getting dangerously low and if we all do a little bit, we can fill them up again.
Back to Debbie. She's organized a "Blogging out Hunger" campaign here in NJ. Today, 100 (or so) bloggers have picked hunger as their topic. Here's how you can help:
Make a monetary contribution: Visit www.njfoodbank.org.
Donate food: Drop off a bag of food at your local food pantry.
Organize a food drive: We can help explain the logistics of starting a food drive. Just call 908-355-FOOD.
Help "Check Out Hunger:" Look for the "Check Out Hunger" coupons at your local supermarket and donate. No donation is too small!
Oh, and here's the list of other bloggers. I encourage you to check them out!
Participating Bloggers for “We Can’t Let This Bank Fail” campaign
