Portrait Society

Although I spent almost an equal amount of time in my studio when I wasn't at my office job, I felt like I didn't really have enough good paintings to do festivals, and doing festivals was the only way I knew to get my work in front of people. I wasn't ready for a gallery yet. I had already been educating myself for several years through books and plain hard work before taking this leap, but I knew I needed more. Early on, I had a real fascination with portrait painting, and thought that was the kind of painting I wanted to do, along with some figurative works. So the first major art group I ever joined was the Portrait Society of America. I attended a number of their annual conventions, and the instruction I received through these meetings from some giants in modern day portraiture: Everett Raymond Kinstler, Burton Silverman, Daniel Green, Richard Schmid and John Howard Sanden, was invaluable to my growth as a painter. There were many other painters at these meetings whose instruction and advice proved tremendously beneficial. Next, I'll explain the #1 thing I took away from the Portrait Society conventions.