Rick Janson Art Studio

I must be crazy. I’ve decided that I want to get into portrait painting. It’s not like I haven’t ventured there before, but it is full of danger, including sitters who have a very different view of themselves sometimes broadly discharged from reality. For example, I have no interest in turning your portrait into a depiction of Jesus, or a doctor who happens to look a lot like Jesus. But if you want to dress up in a cow costume and stand outside a barn, that might be different.

To that end, I am looking for potential sitters for as many as two relatively short sessions. At the end of the day, if you like the portrait and wish to own it, I can offer you a very favourable rate (say about 25% off of my normal pricing). At the very least, I can provide you with a digital copy you can post on social media in which you can offer praise or savagely ridicule me. I’m fairly thick skinned. Beware, the image will go up on this site, and perhaps in my next print book, that is unless it really goes off the rails. I retain all rights to the image.

The idea is to primarily gain some practice at the art of portraiture.

Ideally I would like a sitter who is also energetic and un-self conscious about being a collaborator. I don’t want you to sit like a lump on a chair. I’m looking for a more creative collaboration.

The process would look like this: We meet and talk about how you want to be represented. Maybe at that meeting a few photos are taken. I go back and think about it. I may make some sketches, think some more about composition. Giving the hamster time to turn that wheel inside my head, we get together for a second photo session. A painting is made from that material. You love it. You hate it. We both move on with our lives and never talk about it again.

Because this is a collaborative process, I can’t really do this with young children. The children I know mostly pull faces when I come anywhere near them with my iPhone anyway. I also don’t want to be one of those people that gets fingered in a lawsuit when the child grows up and blames all their shortcomings in life from the trauma they encountered having to sit for THAT artist. This is real, trust me. I’m sure Renoir never had to face that after he painted young Jean, who showed no sign of trauma as he went on to a legendary film career.

If you are thinking about it, but wondering what 25% off my normal pricing looks like, click on the link to my gallery page (you just passed it), look at the prices based on the size of the canvas, then knock off 25%. This is a time limited offer.

Can you give me a photo to work from instead? No. I get no sense of the person from a photo someone else took. Been there, done that. No thanks. As I said, this is a collaboration, which entails fresh images.

What kind of stuff to expect from an interview? I might ask about your happy place, about any events in life that shaped who you are, or what you might be looking for in a portrait (don’t say make me look younger).

Ideally you should be in the Greater Toronto Area unless you want to travel to the exciting city of Oshawa to meet with me (and perhaps take in the sights). Or maybe you are a rich dude who wants to fly me on his personal jet to paint his mistress in Monaco. That would be good too.

You can contact me through this site, or via Facebook Messenger, or whatever method you prefer.

Let’s do it!

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This week the 58th Annual Oshawa Art Association Show opens at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa. The kick off is at 6 pm Thursday (April 23) at the Gallery, with music and cash bar. My painting of nearby Connaught Park is my contribution to the show. The exhibition features about 90 local artists from Durham Region, and yes, most of those paintings are being offered for sale too. And please come visit me May 2-3 at the Scugog Studio Tour. I will have a lot of new painting on hand as well as copies of my Monograph (book) which has more than 90 colour images, including drawings from the 1970s to paintings from last month. The book is listed at $25 but I’m offering it to tour visitors for the low low price of $20. How can he afford to do that? I also have a box of giclee prints of some of my earlier blue work in Cobourg, which I’ll bring along too.