In Michelangelo’s day, an artist’s rite of passage involved an apprenticeship, which provided day-to-day camaraderie with fellow artists who worked beside him. From the 17th through the 19th centuries, European art academies taught aspiring artists to first be proficient in drawing ancient sculptures in charcoal. This could take up to a year before graduating to a live model. Then they had to conquer live-model drawing before they could learn to paint in color.
Few art institutions today offer authentic training and experiences; now, most representational artists must work alone.
For decades, representational art (art created true to life) has been marginalized in favor of modern art. Many museums and art galleries around the world have relegated to the backrooms the fine art that their collections were founded upon to champion nontraditional art forms. Mainstream media and art educational institutions have followed suit.However, aspiring representational artists today can rest assured that there’s a renaissance of traditional art. In recent decades, there’s been a worldwide resurgence of art ateliers teaching classical painting and sculpture. While there’s still headway to be made in museums and galleries, many new organizations have emerged in support of representational art, such as the Florence Academy of Art (founded in 1991) in Florence, Italy; the Art Renewal Center (founded in 1999) in New Jersey; and the Grand Central Atelier (established in 2006) in New York City, to name a few.
Championing Traditional Portraiture
For over 25 years, the Portrait Society of America has championed excellence in portraiture. Sculptor and portrait painter Edward Jonas (1948–2020) envisioned an artist-run group that would act as a “bridge between practicing artists and aspiring artists,” explained Christine Egnoski, the wife of the late artist, and the society’s executive director. In 1998, Jonas fulfilled his wish and founded the society along with portrait painters Gordon Wetmore (1938–2011) and Tom Donahue (1948–2012).
Once a year, hundreds of representational artists put down their tools and travel, sometimes thousands of miles across continents, to the society’s conference “The Art of the Portrait.” This year, it’s held at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, Georgia.
Now in its 26th year, the annual event demonstrates Jonas’s ideal of a bridge between practicing and aspiring artists. From April 25 to 28, leading portrait and figurative artists join art suppliers to inspire their peers and aspiring artists alike with a series of classes, critiques, panel discussions, and live demonstrations.
On April 27, award winners of the Portrait Society of America’s International Portrait Competition (IPC) will be announced at the gala banquet in the grand hall. This year’s competition received over 3,000 entries, including works in oil, clay, pastel, plaster, charcoal, and graphite. A panel of judges selected 20 finalists’ works: three sculptures, four drawings, and 13 oil paintings. The judges assessed more than the artists’ technical skills; they looked for original concepts and compositions showing aesthetic sophistication and cultural significance.
Fine art lovers searching for artworks that represent life and humanity will find them in the “finalists gallery,” which is open to the public.
The Finalists Gallery
If representational portraiture and figurative works are artists’ Mt. Everest, the 20 finalists of the IPC have reached the summit.
Among the 13 oil paintings is “Dr. Edith P. Mitchell, MD” by New York City-based painter Joseph Q. Daily. He says in the society’s 25th anniversary video that winning an IPC award helped launch his career back in 2005. Just two years out of art school, he had struggled to find commissions, but after the competition, he was booked solidly for the next three years.
Jefferson Health commissioned a portrait of Edith P. Mitchell (1947–2024). She was the director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities, professor of medicine and medical oncology, and the enterprise vice president for cancer disparities at Jefferson Health’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.
Mr. Daily rendered the oncologist in a three-quarter-length pose, standing in front of a wall of her framed accolades. He placed each object in the frame to convey Mitchell’s success. She’s poised, beaming with pride. A model airplane in the foreground alludes to her rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force. She holds an award. Although the engraving is barely legible, the year that Mitchell became the 116th president of the National Medical Association (2015) is clear. And a family photo in the background completes the picture of everything she holds dear.
Among the four drawings, London-based artist Laura Arenson’s poignant portrait, “December’s Goodbye,” conveys a lot with little color. Using graphite and chalk on hand-toned paper, she’s made a delicate rendering of her subject’s hidden thoughts and a portrait that’s hard to walk away from. Her aim, as she states on her website, is “capturing humanity in its most poignant, fragile and raw form.” Her works can be seen in London; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Barcelona, Spain.
One of the three sculptures that made the competition’s final cut is New York City-based sculptor Heather Personett’s bust of Irish American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907). She created the portrait in hydrocal gypsum cement for the Salmagundi Library Bust Commission Competition, marking the club’s 150th anniversary. Saint-Gaudens was a member. After training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and then five years in Rome, Saint-Gaudens brought European flair and classical heroism to monumental sculptures in America. Many will be familiar with his work, such as the Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman Monument, which is a gilded-bronze equestrian statue in New York City, and the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial, a bas-relief in Boston. Saint-Gaudens made a lasting impact on American sculpture; he was one of the founders of the National Sculpture Society and the American Academy in Rome.
Living Legacy Awards
The winners of the competition will be announced on April 27. However, the winners of two special awards have already been announced. American sculptor Edward J. Fraughton won the society’s highest honor, the gold medal. He is best known for his monumental Western works, including the Mormon Battalion Monument in Presidio Park, San Diego; The Spirit of Wyoming in Cheyenne, Wyoming; and the Pioneer Courage Monument in Omaha, Nebraska. The judges noted his ability to capture the spirit of the American West along with his contributions to fine art portraiture and figurative works in America.
On his website, Mr. Fraughton writes: “So, what is this legacy called art? It is to do good. Its purpose is to communicate, edify and inspire a man to see beyond himself.”The other special honor announced was the society’s Excellence in Fine Art Education award that recognizes the sometimes unsung heroes of traditional art. It honors the “contributions of museums, foundations, patrons, art schools, ateliers and artists that support the teaching and encouragement of artists seeking to work in the realist tradition.”
This year, the award goes to American Dawn Whitelaw, whose six decades as an artist led her to teach art and mentor artists around the country. The society applauded Ms. Whitelaw for ensuring that centuries of knowledge is passed from artist to artist, and for the enduring impact that she’s had on portraiture and figurative art in America and around the world.
Speaking in the society’s 25th anniversary video, Ms. Whitelaw said of the conference: “I always return to my easel fully resolved, to take my work to a higher level.”
Select Works From the Finalists Gallery
