Upon retirement as Professor of Primary Dental Care in Birmingham, John Davenport had time to expand his interest in painting, concentrating mainly on portraiture. On this occasion John demonstrated his gestural approach to portrait painting. To aid our understanding he broke down his procedure into stages which in practice he would not necessarily rigidly adhere to. His preferred medium is acrylic using a limited palette. This method allowed John to establish the form using grey tones before glazing colour over the form during the latter stages. His procedure is as follows:

1. Foundation: John prefers to use either a heavy watercolour paper or mounting card. Cartridge paper is also acceptable if it has a textured finish. The surface should be primed with gesso, however, for the purpose of this demonstration vinyl emulsion was used.

2. Planning: The main objective of painting a portrait is to achieve a good likeness of subject, it being preferable always to paint directly from the model in order to capture character and subtlety of form. Photographs and videos may be used as reference for when the model is not present, especially for the painting of clothing, jewellery, background etc.

is to indicate the position of the head, shoulders and facial detail using classical ratios. These outlines were very quickly established using a broad brush with mid-grey acrylic paint..

3.Drawing: Using a smaller brush and ultramarine/white mixtures, the initial image was now modified to reflect any deviations of form from the classical proportions. At this stage the likeness to the model began to show through. John continued to work in this manner until a satisfactory likeness had been established and stressed that there is no need to consider colour during these early stages, merely ‘tonal range’ and ‘form’.

4. Colour: A background colour, in this case green, was painted in using a large brush.

For the flesh tones a weak mixture of burnt sienna and white was quickly brushed over and highlights were rubbed off using a kitchen sponge, a light violet mixture was then used for the facial shadows.

The following colours were used in John’s palette:

Cadmium red, Flesh tint, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine blue, Yellow ochre, Cobalt blue,

Violet, Raw umber, Burnt umber and Black.

5. Final Stage: John continually worked over the painting until a satisfactory likeness had been achieved. This was a process of continually going over the painting, correcting and refining until a satisfactory likeness had been achieved. On this occasion John felt he had gone as far as he wished to for the evening but would normally continue to work to conclude the portrait to his satisfaction. To all of us who are interested in portraiture, John’s simple and direct method of establishing form, tone and colour were a revelation.

John’s ability to observe and interpret as well as to record in paint was the vital element. He captures not only the likeness but the personality of the sitter evidenced in the selection of the finished portraits on display. It was interesting to note his ‘mark’ adjusted to the personality of the man/woman portrayed and emphasised the character of the sitter.

I’m sure all of us went away from this demonstration much the wiser and for those fortunate enough to be joining his workshop, hopefully, better painters.

                                                         Richard Randall