My Tuesday night still-life group has made a change for the fall. We begin our weekly sessions by viewing select artwork from artists who paint in distinctive styles. Then, using a still life or photo, we attempt to evoke something of the artist while we paint for 90- minutes.

Our artist this evening was the portrait painter Alice Neel. She often emphasized her subjects’ personalities by enlarging eyes and heads, elongating limbs, simplifying everything, and adding emphasis with lines. She placed her models on the canvas as though they were seated directly across from her and minimized the background.

I used a photo from a few summers ago that I thought would be a good reference because it was a close-up and caught a pensive look.

.