Eric Brill's Creative Portraiture Page
For most artists, portraiture involves the transfer of image from life to canvas. I believe a portrait should capture more than just a person's image -- it should express a person's entire life-form, of which the way one looks is but a small superficial component. In creative portraiture, we use a person's image as a guide for our work. As Jean Gulle, perhaps the greatest creative portraturist of the later half of the 20th century once said: "Your image is the starting point, but it is your life that guides my hand. To put you on canvas my eyes shall briefly study your form, but my mind will, at great length, study your true essence." It was seeing an exhibition of Jean Gulle's works (from his "Green Ovals and Freckles" period) that inspired me to take up creative portraiture. Every year, I pick a different theme for my portraits. In 2000, I chose the theme of music. In creating portraits of some of history's finest musicians, I not only looked at photographs, drawings, and so forth, but I meticulously studied their lives and works. Below I present a few samples for your viewing pleasure.
Gustav Mahler: I must say, this is one of my best portraits. Everything just seemed to magically come together on the canvas for this one. I drew this between April and July, 2000. You will notice both sadness and joy in his eyes, much as was the case throughout his life and his music. For those of you who are musically savvy, you will probably see that the color scheme was greatly inspired by his 3rd and 9th symphonies. I hope fans of Jean Gulle will not accuse me of pilfering his style -- while I will openly admit this portrait was done much in the style of Gulle's earlier work, I think you will agree that I have liberally adopted many modern techniques (some reminiscent of Surnet, others of my own invention) as well. To see my Mahler portrait, click HERE.
Britney Spears: Many in the art community were shocked and offended to learn that I was applying my creative skills to create a portrait of Britney Spears. Nonetheless, I devoted most of my time between September and November, 2000, to creating this portrait. While I do not think artists need answer their critics, I do think a few words of explanation are in order. I undertook this portrait to demonstrate that a high art such as creative portraiture can (and I would claim MUST) comingle with the more proletarian art forms. Therefore, I see this portrait (currently on loan to the Whitney Museum) as a first step toward this end. Please keep an open mind when viewing this portrait. Savor the artistic creativity, even if you object to the political statement. To see my Britney Spears portrait, click HERE.
