Rick Ley, NHL. Oil on canvas, 18"x24" Commissioned for the Orillia Sports Hall of Fame, 2016.
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Friday, August 14, 2009
portrait stage 7
Primavera
This painting came from a life painting session. It's a pretty good likeness of the model's face. Later, I added hair a la Botticelli (with maybe a little Dali) so that she could be displayed without all the "naked baggage" that goes along with a full-frontal female nude.
La Fiorentina

I worked on this painting while I was living in Florence. I was working with Richard Serrin, an American painter who lives there, and who is an expert in Rembrandt's techniques. I started with a pencil drawing of the model, which took about six hours. The I plotted the outline of the drawing onto the support, which was linen on board. Then the painting was done in monochrome - raw umber and lead white.
After taking several weeks just working on the monochrome painting, I was allowed to start putting the colour on. The palette consisted of burnt umber, raw umber, vermillion, and lead white powdered pigments mixed with boiled linseed oil. Colour was applied in minute porportions.
I added an imaginary snake jewel on her headscarf to refer to the model's name, which was Cleopatra.
After taking several weeks just working on the monochrome painting, I was allowed to start putting the colour on. The palette consisted of burnt umber, raw umber, vermillion, and lead white powdered pigments mixed with boiled linseed oil. Colour was applied in minute porportions.
I added an imaginary snake jewel on her headscarf to refer to the model's name, which was Cleopatra.
Yuliya

I started this painting by sketching the model from life directly on to the canvas. I then took several photos of her in her pose along with shots of her collection of oriental carpets and cushions. I added the carpet designs into the background and completed the piece in my studio.
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