Portrait Intimacy: 'Red Hat' by Dean James

A question I often get asked by photographers is “why paint?” What can a painting “do” that a photograph doesn’t “do”? These series of questions are designed to help you understand what a painting can “do” that a photograph doesn’t “do”. The series of questions that arise are all about careful observation. Every question can be used to help you make choices when you paint, or view a painting.

I start this blog about one of my paintings called ‘Red Hat.’  It is available to buy in my eStore.  Here is a digital version of it:

                                                       'Red Hat,' by Dean James

Takako is a model from Japan.  I caught up with her after the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami disaster that shook the whole world, not only the Japanese nation.  Takako is a very interesting model.  Very sophisticated.

What i did was a photo shoot and then after the photoshoot, look through the images and use them as a reference.

The days are gone where the model used to ‘live’ with the Artist until they drove each other nuts, even to the point of the likes of van Gogh dismembering bodily parts. 

What struck me about the image I printed off and put next to my easel was the way Takako is holding her shoulder.  It struck me as though, even though the pose was about ‘hand-to-shoulder’ routine stuff, this was different.

It wasn’t until after I had sketched the model, gained her approval, and then started to paint that a deep longing for the relief and help for the future of the Japanese people overtook me in my painting.

I found the paint brush strokes picking up colours that not only reflected her ‘hat’ but showed a leaking onto the rest of her.  It was a case of ‘hats off’ to Takako merging with ‘hats blown off’ by a terrible stormy disaster.

I couldn’t help but express myself and could hear the cry of the lost as I painted each stroke.  I wept as I painted this.  Yet the colours turn subtle, and the tears turn to one of hope for the future, and a joy on the rebuilding and turn towards a stronger, new foundation, albeit, in a stormy zone of unpredictable oceanic and crust activities, hostile to any man’s new technological devices of survival. 

Japan will rebuild herself and be strong again.  Takako’s hat is red.  The future is bright. 

Peace and Love

Dean James x

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." (Degas)