Alla Prima Portrait: Christina (oil, 20 x 16)

Thursday, Punta Gorda's Portrait Studio Day. Today's model was Christina. I believed she was a beginner as a model for artists. As far as I knew, no one at Punta Gorda VAC had ever painted her. When the painting session was over and I was packing my stuff, I heard one of my fellow artists make a comment on today's session: "It is the worst experience I've ever had with models. I felt sorry to hear that but I totally understood what he meant.

I am not sure it was also my worst, too but it was definitely disappointing. In my past experiences, one model took French leave without informing us till we called him and I had to drive down the street to a local cafe, asking around if any off-shift employees were willing to make some extra bucks by posing for us. Even at VAC, I remember one day when it was already 15 minutes past 9 AM, the scheduled model, who was a waitress, called saying she was still in bed and would be on her way to the Portrait Studio soon. When she finally showed up, I asked if she could extend the posing beyond the usually ending time to make up for us. She said "No", because she had to work. This morning, at 9:20 AM, we heard that the model would be late because she had a traffic accident and got a ticket. I don't know which was cause and which effect.

Usually I had only one expectation for models, that is, keeping good time. After I got the outline in the first sitting, I would not insist the model stay exactly the same posture by asking the model to "look a little up or down or to the left or right". Unfortunately, I could not say I was satisfied this morning. Break time were oftentimes extended plus numerous digressions even after the model finally sat back on the chair. Some people would stand in front of her and kept talking to her or doing something else with her. To be fair, it was not totally the model's fault. Whatever it was,, I knew I had lost my momentum and did the worse portrait recently.

Some of my friends tried to mitigate the unpleasant feelings. They said I and some other artists were kind of too serious. Besides, most models we hired were not professionals and we didn't pay them as much. In other words, it was OK to be relaxed or slack. On that I am afraid I can't agree. I never consider myself a professional. However, I feel good as an artist only when I feel I've made some progress in art. So are golfers, tennis and bridge players. Of course, they enjoy each other's company and love to socialize with friends, but I don't think they would compromise the game rules in their playing. Because if we slack the rules, we can't enjoy the game. I feel the same about making art. Does it make sense that we could be lethargic and cut corners on our job because we are not paid much? Give me a bottomline if you could.