Anne Griswold Tyng

Alexandra Tyng · 09-06-2006, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike McCarty

I thought my head was going to explodrahedron.

I can just picture all those tetrahedrons and octohedrons erupting from your skull! It's exactly how I feel when my mother starts talking about her theories. At least she knows what she is talking about!

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 09-06-2006, 05:58 PM

Alex, she looks like a little woman who could be holding the whole globe rather then a balsa shape, so positive and assertive.
My feeling is also that you had to hold back your mother/daughter relationship in order to paint her in this more official and formal situation.
In a sense I see more ease in the couple of architects you painted lately. I tried to paint my mother last year, but I found it difficult even to look her straight in the eyes.
Anyway this is a very complex and elaborated work which shows off all your skill.
Beautiful
Ilaria

Alexandra Tyng · 09-06-2006, 06:53 PM

Thank you, Ilaria!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco

Alex, she looks like a little woman who could be holding the whole globe rather then a balsa shape, so positive and assertive.

Definitely true. I am glad this came across.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco

My feeling is also that you had to hold back your mother/daughter relationship in order to paint her in this more official and formal situation.
In a sense I see more ease in the couple of architects you painted lately. I tried to paint my mother last year, but I found it difficult even to look her straight in the eyes.

That is so true, also! I think you are right, that I made her more formal than the other architects, and it could be also that I have already painted her in a more "motherly" pose, so I was deliberately contrasting this with the other portrait. There is that dignified persona she presents professionally that is so "her." I did see the Venturis as more relaxed and informal, in a way. Maybe I did have to separate myself from her (as mother/daughter) in order to paint her this way. The expression in the other portrait tugs at me every time I look at it, and I always lean it against the wall in my studio and cover it with another painting. What does that say? Too much emotion? So I empathize with your not being able to look your mother in the eye.

Alexandra Tyng · 09-06-2006, 07:52 PM

Here are a couple of close-ups of the jacket.

Michele Rushworth · 09-06-2006, 10:51 PM

Wonderful! And I wish I owned a jacket like that.

Julie Deane · 09-06-2006, 11:23 PM

Alex -

Great painting! That fabric texture is wonderful, too. The composition is unique as well. Wow, wow wow.....I know when I come to one of your unveilings, I am in for a treat.

John Reidy · 09-07-2006, 07:32 AM

Congratulations, Alex. Another winner.

Chris Saper · 09-08-2006, 10:12 PM

Please forgive my tardiness, I love this painting. I wish I were your cousin. You have color and design and textural excitement going on here.

Alex, I always learn from you and I appreciate it.

Mari DeRuntz · 09-08-2006, 10:20 PM

Beautiful! I'm hoping you'll say something about your compositional decisions - those "pointing" contrasts of geometrical design on the subtle background chalkboard and the 3-d model must have been great fun to design.

Alexandra Tyng · 09-10-2006, 12:09 AM

Garth, thank you so much. I agree, we have to get Allan over here for a visit! Also, I'm embarrassed because I never asked you how the Union League portrait delivery went. I'll check to see if you posted anything.

Chris, you are so nice to say these things! We can be honorary cousins in art. I learn just as much from you, believe me!

Mari, thank you, too! I really like your use of the word blackboard to describe the background. That really is the effect I wanted. I was thinking of concepts not (yet) realized, and of drawing boards, but I really was aiming for a kind of chalk-on-board effect.

The interplay of 3-d model and background was a lot of fun. It was really trial and error. I had a really definite picture in my mind of the hanging model and how much of it I wanted to include in the painting. I wanted the portrait to go up much higher than the top of my mother's head to emphasize her small size and the large scale of her ideas.

I had an elevation drawing of the city tower and two or three photos of the tower model. I liked the idea of challenging myself to draw the tower model in perspective and still make it look "flat" compared to the actual 3-d hanging model! In the portrait, the viewer's eye level is a little above my mother's head. I chose the photo of the tower whose perspective angle would correspond to the perspective of the rest of the painting when drawn at a certain size, i.e., viewing the middle of the tower straight-on, looking up at the top and down at the base. ( I had to sketch it in several times before I got it the right size. I wanted the base of the tower model to be a continuation of the floor plane, but transitioning from real to conceptual at a nebulous point. These were my intended goals and I hope I accomplished them to some extent. I hope my explanation makes sense. If not, looking at the WIP might shed a little light on this. Anyway, it was fun to do but I had a few nervewracking times when I wiped the whole background out and wasn't sure it was going to work.