Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/819093
looks like mine, it's more than that, somehow — an image of who I might be. She's used transfer paper to draw my image from the photo, using permanent ink, from the photo to the canvas, covered the canvas with thinned paint, and lifted out highlights with a turpentine- dipped brush. Wiecha needed to tweak the oil sketch. The photo's flattened per- spective caused my hand to appear bigger than it actually is, so I sat as she made comparative measurements and redrew it. To match paint to my skin, Wiecha mixed burnt sienna with yel- low ochre and white, added Venetian red, more burnt sienna, then blue-black and a bit of white. She created three different tones to represent the varying effects of light on the skin. She checked my eye color—hazel—and mixed more paints to produce the color of my sweater. When she sent me a photo of the painting, still in progress, I was amazed. Somehow, she's captured not only what I look like, but my personality and the expression in my eyes. It's utterly believable, yet intriguing and surprising. Recreating the act of looking at someone: that's what Wiecha wants her portraits to achieve. As she worked, she said, "You suddenly start to see the person come out of the canvas, which is a lovely kind of magic trick." two black-and-white enlarged photographs, a detailed sketch of my arm and hand, a sketch on an easel, and a 24 x 24-inch monochromatic oil sketch that forms the bones of the portrait. It's an unusual feeling, to see oneself on canvas. I wasn't self-con- scious, because while I'm the subject of the painting, and the face Pear (le), Grenade (right) 172 W e l l e s l e y W e s t o n M a g a z i n e | s u m m e r 2 0 1 7 artist profile "intriguing and surprising"