Swann Smith News

Self-Portrait with Red Cap

Swann — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:58:02 +0000

This painting was inspired by some of my favorite Renaissance portraits. In particular, the two Bronzino portraits that hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection in New York.

oil on wood panel, 20 x 16 inches

Sacred and Profane

Swann — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:40:02 +0000

This surreal still life juxtaposes a classic nude statue and a bobblehead dog. Which is sacred, which is profane?

oil on wood panel, 20 x 16 inches

detail of statue

detail of bobblehead dog

San Marco Horses

Swann — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:06:18 +0000

This painting was inspired by the bronze horses that adorn the entrance of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, Italy.

oil on wood panel, 16 x 20 inches

detail of San Marco Horses painting

Copy of an Ingres Drawing

Swann — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:13:13 +0000

A copy after Ingres’ portrait drawing of Merry-Joseph Blondel.

graphite, heightened with white, on toned paper. 6.88 x 5.58 inches

Portrait of Sunnyside

Swann — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:49:59 +0000

A sketch of me in my New York City neighborhood of Sunnyside.

pen on paper, 6 x 4 inches

Roman Statue of Hercules

Swann — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:33:58 +0000

A sketch of young Hercules from the Greek and Roman section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

graphite, heightened with white, on toned paper. 10.25 x 6.33 inches

Figure Drawing

Swann — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:17:40 +0000

A sketch of a female model.

graphite, heightened with white, on toned paper. 11 x 7.875 inches.

Sacred and Profane: painting in progress update 2

Swann — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:56:12 +0000

In this final update, I reveal to you the completed oil painting and why I named it “Sacred and Profane”.

oil on wood panel, 20 x 16 inches

I hope you have taken some time during this painting’s progress to reflect upon the title’s meaning. My intention was that either object could be considered sacred or profane depending on the viewer’s perspective.

An artistic eye could see the classical sculpture as sacred and the bobblehead dog as profane. However, a moralistic eye could see the naked statue as profane and the cute, unobjectionable dog as sacred.

The painting’s only other object, the dog leash, I envisioned to symbolize either a stream of thought or a serpent winding its way through the composition.

Thank you for following the progress of this painting. I hope you will share the experience with others and return to follow my next painting in progress.

What do you think?

I would love to hear your own interpretations of this painting and, as always, appreciate any constructive criticisms.

Sacred and Profane: painting in progress update

Swann — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:28:56 +0000

During the past week, I have blocked in the colors for all the objects in my still life (you can see from the detail above that the brushwork remains rough).

stage 2 of the painting process

One of the choices I made for the painting was to include a leash to fill out the composition; to thematically bind the male torso and the dog; and to censor the torso’s genitalia in its reflection (does this suggest that the torso is the profane obejct? Possibly. It’s for you to decide). The dark black is also a counterpoint to the lightness of the overall painting and grounds the composition. I’m aiming to achieve a rich black like the one’s found in the paintings of Renoir, one of my favorite impressionist painters.

The next time you check back to watch the painting’s progress, I will be showing you the final painting with value shifts refined and the painting’s surface polished.

What do you think?

I appreciate your thoughts and constructive criticisms.

Sacred and Profane: painting in progress

Swann — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:40:48 +0000

I am in the early stages of a painting that is intended to ask you, the viewer, to quietly reflect upon whether you consider a nude statue or a bobblehead dog to be sacred or profane.

I am envisioning the final painting to be fairly ethereal (no heavy, dramatic philosophy here). I will discuss my thoughts concerning the subject when the painting is complete. For now, I’d like to share my painting process to this point with you.

stage 1 of the painting process

I started by setting up the still life in my studio and created a simple line drawing. The drawing was transfered to a gessoed wood panel with charcoal and then solidified with ink.

The painting you see above is the underpainting. For the objects, the underpainting was done in grisaille, while the background’s underpainting includes the four main colors for the painting (the colors are so light that it’s hard to pick up with a camera). During the underpainting I am mainly concerned with getting a foundation of paint down. You can think of it like a tinted primer used before painting a wall. Upon it values can be refined and each successive layer produces a more even finish.

For this painting, I did not create a traditional color sketch. Instead, I painted some color swatches on a scrap piece of canvas (shown below). The second row of four pastel colors are my main color scheme (the three cool colors harmonize, while the warm color is a punch of contrast). Below the main colors are their darker versions for shadow areas.

color swatches

The next time you check back to watch the painting’s progress, the still life will be transforming into full color.

What do you think?

I appreciate your thoughts and constructive criticisms.