UntitledPRISCILLA RIVERA
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ARTIST STATEMENT
For as long as I can remember, news about Afghanistan is reported almost everyday. I still have yet to understand the main reason we have been at war for so long. I always thought, “What is this mysterious place plagued with so much hatred and fear?” I have learned that Afghanistan has been the centre of many powerful empires for the past 2,000 years. However, in the last 30 years the country has been in chaos due to major wars - from the Soviet invasion of 1979, to their withdrawal in 1989, from warlordism to the removal of the Taliban in 2001, and the ensuing American and NATO invasion. Economically, Afghanistan is considered poor compared to many other nations of the world. The main language is Afghan Persian Pashto and main religion is Sunni Muslim. Jabal os Saraj is a district of Parwan Province located north of the capital Kabul, Afghanistan. It is located on the way to the tajikan village of Salang Pass and surrounded by the high peaks of mountains. Jabal os Saraj is known for its natural beauty and its brave people. I never planned painting a boy from Afghanistan, but fate led me to it. I was drawn to looking into the boy’s eyes for a story I would never hear, only to leave me wondering about the smile showing through his pursed lips. My acrylic painting was based off of a photograph shown in Steve McCurry’s photo album called Phaidon published in 1999. As I looked through his book of exquisite photos, I came across one intriguingly beautiful portrait. This portrait from Jabal os Saraj, Afghanistan, 1992, depicted a young boy with bright eyes and a brightly colored woven hat. I had come to love the natural feel of the photograph and decided to try my hand at creating an acrylic portrait. I got to work creating as realistic a painting as possible. I wanted to create a sense of depth by using natural skin colors, including the shadows and highlights, all mixed from the primary colors. I layered the paint quite a bit to get the colors I achieved. In my painting, I watered down the paint mostly for the face and the hat. For the collar of the shirt, I used paint straight from my palette with little water to blend the paint in soft movements. In all, there was no plan for this portrait; it just occured to me that this painting would turn out to be a magnificent piece that I would come to treasure.
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Instructor Resources
INSTRUCTOR
Carolyn Thom
Vista High School
I am an art educator at Vista High School with Vista Unified School District. I teach all levels of visual art. This project was given to my AP/Studio art class in the Fall. This is mainly a drawing and painting class. This project focused on the student’s first experience painting a portrait in acrylic. They have used acrylics before but not in a portrait.
To add interest and some research to the project, I had the students research a culture other than Western cultures. The learning objective was to become familiar with another culture and compare and contrast it with American culture. The final project was a portrait from the culture they researched. I invited a professional portrait artist to demonstrate technique for the students in acrylic. For most of the students, it was their first experience with acrylic portraits and mixing skin tones. I hoped that students would be able to transfer the research skills learned to other projects as well as the acrylic techniques learned and color mixing skills they used. It freed them up to attempt more portraiture even in other media such as watercolor and colored pencils now that they had the color mixing practiced for skin tones. It also introduced them to the artwork and clothing of other cultures.
I was inspired to create this project for my International Baccalaureate art class and knew it would benefit my AP and Studio art students was well. I felt it would add a dimension to portraiture that would motivate the students to go beyond a “pretty picture” and discover something new. I think that the students enjoyed the project. They always balk at writing in art class but they seemed interested and motivated once they got researching on their own. I really like the structure of the IB program and I try to incorporate it in all my classes. IB requires an extensive artist research workbook where students research every art piece they do as well as show all of their process and self-evaluations. I have included the hand out that guides the student’s culture research. I did not create it. I must have gotten it at a CAEA or IB conference.
The materials I use for the project are acrylic paints. For portraiture we added some higher quality paints in alizarin crimson, cadmium red and orange, unbleached titanium instead of pure white, and Paynes gray. I introduced using matt medium to thin a color.
The pieces in the show exceeded my expectations by the student’s use of color, blending and their success in creating a realistic skin tone. I am always trying to get the students to work more in the background and “tell the story” which Aileen’s piece was a good example. Also, they did not put the portrait in the middle of the canvas which is always a struggle to get the students to avoid. Priscilla’s background was a beautiful mixture of color that did not overpower the piece and helped create her emphasis. The students were very successful and have continued to include other cultures and portraiture in their work.
Carolyn Thom
Vista High School
I am an art educator at Vista High School with Vista Unified School District. I teach all levels of visual art. This project was given to my AP/Studio art class in the Fall. This is mainly a drawing and painting class. This project focused on the student’s first experience painting a portrait in acrylic. They have used acrylics before but not in a portrait.
To add interest and some research to the project, I had the students research a culture other than Western cultures. The learning objective was to become familiar with another culture and compare and contrast it with American culture. The final project was a portrait from the culture they researched. I invited a professional portrait artist to demonstrate technique for the students in acrylic. For most of the students, it was their first experience with acrylic portraits and mixing skin tones. I hoped that students would be able to transfer the research skills learned to other projects as well as the acrylic techniques learned and color mixing skills they used. It freed them up to attempt more portraiture even in other media such as watercolor and colored pencils now that they had the color mixing practiced for skin tones. It also introduced them to the artwork and clothing of other cultures.
I was inspired to create this project for my International Baccalaureate art class and knew it would benefit my AP and Studio art students was well. I felt it would add a dimension to portraiture that would motivate the students to go beyond a “pretty picture” and discover something new. I think that the students enjoyed the project. They always balk at writing in art class but they seemed interested and motivated once they got researching on their own. I really like the structure of the IB program and I try to incorporate it in all my classes. IB requires an extensive artist research workbook where students research every art piece they do as well as show all of their process and self-evaluations. I have included the hand out that guides the student’s culture research. I did not create it. I must have gotten it at a CAEA or IB conference.
The materials I use for the project are acrylic paints. For portraiture we added some higher quality paints in alizarin crimson, cadmium red and orange, unbleached titanium instead of pure white, and Paynes gray. I introduced using matt medium to thin a color.
The pieces in the show exceeded my expectations by the student’s use of color, blending and their success in creating a realistic skin tone. I am always trying to get the students to work more in the background and “tell the story” which Aileen’s piece was a good example. Also, they did not put the portrait in the middle of the canvas which is always a struggle to get the students to avoid. Priscilla’s background was a beautiful mixture of color that did not overpower the piece and helped create her emphasis. The students were very successful and have continued to include other cultures and portraiture in their work.
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