24 artistFebruary 2021 http://www.painters-online.co.uk
OILS
Alla-prima
portraits
Rob Wareing argues that an oil portrait produced over more
than one session can still be described as alla prima if the paint
remains ‘still wet and workable’ throughout
A
lla prima describes a direct
approach to painting. As the
term is most commonly used,
the aim is to complete the
work from life in one sitting. The charm
and desirability of this technique is in
the fresh, lively, instinctive brushwork
which is impossible to achieve with
more layered approaches. John Singer
Sargent’s (1856–1925) painting Lady
Agnew of Lochnaw is a wonderful example
of this.
However, there are many variations of
this technique when painting portraits- the most obvious factors affecting the
approach being the size and content
of the painting. Some of the greatest
exponents of this technique certainly
did not complete their larger canvases
in a single sitting. American artist
William Franklin Draper (1912–2003),
for example, required five consecutive
days of sittings to complete a three-
quarter-length portrait including
hands measuring 30 3 36in (76 3 91cm).
Nevertheless, as the paint remained
wet and workable throughout, this
process can still be considered alla
prima.
Besides freshness, the direct wet-into-
wet approach has other benefits: the
time taken to completion is relatively
quick and, very importantly, because of
the intensity of the situation a natural
editing takes place, details being
reduced to mere finishing touches on
an almost-completed work. There is
also a wholeness to the work because
the painting is painted wet-into-wet.
Some artists make a few adjustments
to their painting after the sitting from
photographs and others use the alla-
prima session merely as a reference for
work which is otherwise largely done
from a photograph. My own preference
is to have the model with me from
beginning to end. All of these are valid
ways of painting alla prima.Making adjustments
Sometimes after the sitting, I feel
that something is not quite right. This
normally occurs around the mouth
area. Rather than fiddling endlessly
(which is guaranteed to make it worse),
I scrape down the offending area and
call the model in for another sitting. If
the paint has started to dry before the
second sitting, I use a mixture of half
poppyseed oil and half water, shaken
vigorously until it becomes a milky
colour. I then paint this mixture over
the area I am going to work on. As the
water evaporates, a thin film of oil is
left on the painting, which is a pleasant
surface to work upon. I can then correct
the offending area without losing the
freshness or wholeness of the painting.Rob Wareing
is a professional portrait painter. To see
more of his work and for details of his
workshops, see http://www.robwareing.com‘The charm and
desirability of
this technique
is in the fresh,
lively, instinctive
brushwork which
is impossible to
achieve with more
layered approaches’