Entry - 1.13.24

I first painted the author Jeffrey Ford back in 2004. The portrait was “constructed” from many sources, including some poorly lit snapshots which I took in a pizzeria of the unsuspecting but amiably accommodating writer. In the painting I was hoping to capture the strange realism embraced by many Northern Renaissance artists, particularly Hans Holbein. Once completed, I built a heavy frame for the painting and painted on it in spiraling, gold lettering a quote from Hermann Hesse. Two things troubled me about the finished work. The lighting in which I had photographed Jeff was extremely inadequate, leaving form poorly expressed and providing little contrast and nuance. So I embellished as best I could. I was also dissatisfied with a crow included in the work. I knew that its dark plumage had the potential to dominate my composition and tried to tamp down the blacks in my palette, but somehow I lost control during execution. The crow was too weighty and didn't integrate successfully with the subtly rendered details of other components of the work. I wouldn't call the finished painting a failure, but I definitely hoped to get another crack at Jeff sometime in the future.

Gerard Wickham - Jeffrey Ford, detail - 2004

Gerard Wickham - Jeffrey Ford - 2004

My opportunity came eighteen years later in September of 2022. Jeff and his wife Lynn were passing though our area during one of their many peregrinations and stopped by our home to visit for a few days. During their stay, I asked Jeff if he would pose for some photographs and, as is his wont, he obliged readily. This time I was going to get it right. I set up complex studio lighting in a stuffy alcove and had Jeff pose in front of a multi-paneled, wood grained door. It was a hot day, there was no ventilation and the lights were raining heat upon us, but I kept taking photos, at least fifty of them. Throughout this ordeal, Jeff never grumbled or whined. Afterwards I was so confident that I had got exactly what I needed that I didn't even look at the photos until well after Jeff and Lynn had left. Imagine my shock when I transferred the photographs to my computer and found that every image was totally out-of-focus. I tried editing the photos to salvage an image or two, but eventually I had to recognize that they were completely unusable. What the hell had happened? I was pretty sure my Nikon DSLR had died. It actually took me weeks to figure out that the lens was the problem and not the camera. Turns out my lens had an autofocus motor in it that must have conked out. What? Lenses have motors?

I was at an impasse, and rather than address the problem I chose to ignore it. At that time, I was painting an extremely large figurative work which would take me many months to complete, so I felt no urgency to make preparations for Jeff's portrait. Jeff lives several hundred miles away, so I couldn't ask him to drop in for another try. It was slowly dawning on me that I was going to have to ask Lynn, who is a very talented photographer, to take a series of photos of Jeff. She would have done a great job, but I look for very specific things in my source photographs and rued surrendering control to someone else (even with my providing obsessively detailed direction). So again I did nothing. By the summer of 2023, work was winding down on my current project, and I knew my explanatory phone call to Jeff and Lynn would have to be made soon if I wanted to avoid a long period of inactivity between paintings. That's when I found out that Jeff and Lynn would be traversing the Hudson Valley once again, an event as infrequent as a total solar eclipse or the Mets winning the World Series. Eureka! Deus ex machina! etc. etc.

So, in a nutshell, Jeff and Lynn stayed with us a second time and Jeff agreed to pose once again, never offering even a word of censure regarding my highly probable incompetence. This time I positioned Jeff beside a sliding glass door to his right and an incandescent light source to his left. I draped a bright blue blanket behind him, hoping that its intense coloration would infuse his features with form-defining reflections. I used two cameras, a point and shoot model and my DSLR, now equipped with a 35mm fixed lens. I wasn't taking any chances this time. I'd take two series of photographs.

I instructed Jeff to adopt a very specific facial expression, one I thought exemplified his personality faithfully, and he complied effortlessly. I, of course, took a million shots. To rule out any possibility of camera shake, I used a tripod and took my photos with a ten second delay. Every so often I noticed Jeff pulling strange faces in the interlude between my pressing the shutter release and the camera taking the timed photos. I asked him what he was doing. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I'm mixing it up.” It's your funeral, I thought, and continued with my work.

Afterwards, I examined the results of our efforts, and on this occasion nearly every photograph I took was successful. I examined the shots, including those in which Jeff deliberately distorted his features, and came to realize that my portrait had become a triptych. So weeks later, I brought a flash drive holding three photos to Staples and instructed the confused technician to print each image several times, sometimes deliberately over or under exposing them. She did as I requested, but she didn't like it one bit.

When I painted this first image, the one where Jeff actually adopted the expression I wanted, I pinned multiple versions of the photograph around the gessoed panel on which I painted and referred to each of them as I worked. My goal was to finish this first panel before Christmas, and I achieved this objective with a week or so to spare. Setting arbitrary goals is a tool I employ to coerce myself into being more productive, maybe squeezing in extra sessions and extending my time in the studio. I believe I got from this painting what I wanted: a concise portrayal of a specific personality executed using fairly loose brushwork and a heightened palette. My intention, should my focus and stamina endure, is to paint two additional versions of Jeff and construct some sort of framing mechanism to display all three panels. As I complete them, I'll post the results of my future efforts.

Gerard Wickham - Jeffrey Ford - 2023

As always, I encourage readers to comment here. If you would prefer to comment privately, you can email me at gerardwickham@gmail.com.

March 30, 2024 Update:

Weeks ago I completed the second panel of my multi-paneled portrait of Jeffrey Ford. It took me about two months to paint this image. The beginning was rough. I repainted the same small sections over and over again, never quite able to achieve what I wanted, never satisfied that my tonalities and brushwork would mesh with those of the previous panel. After several sessions of painting, I finally felt that my approach was coming together. Once over that hump, the rest of the endeavor proceeded efficiently. By the way, I left the first panel stacked aside while I painted the second; I relied mostly on my memory to determine my course. Since I completed this painting, I left it on my easel to dry while I waited for the weather to improve enough for an outdoor photoshoot. My intention now is to wait a few more weeks before tackling the final panel, maybe catch up on some long neglected writing projects.

Gerard Wickham - Jeffrey Ford - 2024