Mondays with Lisbeth

My daughter Lisbeth will be joining me in my studio on Monday mornings to "do art." Today she was not in the mood to make art, but wanted me to draw her. She sat for about half an hour. I have made several portraits of Lisbeth over the years. It's an intense experience, because she is so intense, and our bond and joint history is so intense. In a thirty minute period, Lisbeth can rapidly vacillate between giddiness, anxiety, anger, sadness...it's all there.

Couples Portrait Progress, Cont'd...

Almost there. I still have to resolve the lower right hand corner - Pat's sweater and sleeve - and fine tune some areas of the whole piece. Pat and Tom sent me a few photos of a beach in Maine that they love, and I chose one to incorporate into the background...

Sisters Three

Chris Beneman with her daughters Sarah, Kate, and Lisa.

Yesterday afternoon I had the great pleasure of drawing this beautiful trio of sisters, whose Mom wanted to catch them together while they were all home for the holidays, before the older two have to head back out of state and return to school. They sat for about an hour and a half as the sun went down. A triple treat to draw!!!

Couples Portrait Progress

Worked in my new studio yesterday afternoon, using the photo references to furthur resolve this couples portrait. I still have a ways to go, but it's shaping up. I'm loving working in my new space!

A Couples Portrait

I started this commissioned couples portrait last weekend. Old friends Pat and Tom Heslin were staying at their weekend home in southern Maine (they live in RI) and drove up the coast in an ice storm Saturday morning to be the first to sit for a portrait in my new studio! Unlike the recent marathon portraits, this piece will be more finished, and will require more time. Ahhh, the luxury of time! There is something freeing and fun about setting a time limit and working fast and furious, and there is something calming and satisfying about taking my time. Both ways of working are valid and yield different results.

Pat and Tom sat for 2 hours, and I took a bunch of pictures as references to work from. I've worked this way before, some examples: here, here, and here...and am becoming more comfortable with relying on my memory and the photos to resolve a portrait. I may ask them to sit one more time, we'll see.

Pat and Tom are going to send me some images to integrate into the portrait - possibly photos of the shore. I have started to sketch in a bouquet that is in my studio, and the horizon over the river out my studio window. This will most likely all get buried. It will all morph and change, and here I offer you a view of the beginnings.

Process, process...

A Fabulous New Book!

I received this remarkable book about the early civil rights movement for Christmas. The author just happens to be my son, Eben Miller! (To say I feel proud is a huge understatement!!)
Born Along The Color Line is available for purchase in select bookstores, and on-line through Oxford University Press, and over at Amazon! Check it out!

From the back of the book jacket:

"Eben Miller centers his terrific new book on a glorious estate in the Hudson River Valley at the height of summer 1933. In that unlikely spot, he uncovers a crossroad in the long, hard struggle for civil rights, a place where the movement pivoted. Born along the Color Line is a marvelous piece of historical recreation, original, engaging, and enlightening."-Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age

"In this creative and engaging account of a pivotal moment in the history of the NAACP, Eben Miller captures the organizational vibrancy and ideological diversity of the nation's leading civil rights organization. Through the biographies of the young black men and women who vigorously debated strategies for combating segregation and racial inequality at the NAACP's Amenia Conference, Born along the Color Line effectively recovers the diverse and often competing political currents informing civil rights activism prior to the rise of the modern civil rights movement."-Eric Arnesen, The George Washington University

"Eben Miller's well-researched and interpretively sound Born along the Color Line is a major contribution to 20th-century civil rights literature. This may not be the last word on the significance of the second Amenia Conference, but any further scholarship will begin with his."-David Levering Lewis, author of Du Bois: A Biography

"With his warm biographical portraits and finely honed interpretations Eben Miller has cast a new and valuable light on the generation of black activists and intellectuals who paved the way for the great legal and social victories of the 1950s and 60s. Born along the Color Line should be required reading for anyone who hopes to claim expertise in the history of the modern civil rights movement." -Jonathan Holloway, Yale University

Happy New Year!

Some funky corners of The Starlight Cafe in Bath, around the corner from my new studio!

Here's a Toast to a Happy, Healthy, Creative and Productive 2012!