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Another portrait: Beverly Emmons
Scotty Snyder met me at a New Year's party in 1981. She took my hand and walked me to Beverly Emmons and told me that I should do a portrait of Beverly.
I did it. Beverly was pregnant at this time, and though I knew Scotty Snyder was thinking of the
Van Eyck Arnolfini Portrait, I looked at Beverly and knew a portrait was possible. Beverly and I talked about it seriously.
Beverly Emmons is punctual. She appeared at the right time. This is important for a portrait painter. When someone who is sitting for the portrait doesn't show, the painter can become bothered. Painting portraits from life is a social experience. If you can't talk while you're painting, don't do it. If you, as the painter, don't talk, the model gets bothered. When painting a portrait, the person sitting for you is never a model, but a person.
Beverly handles it very well, she told me lots about lighting Broadway shows. She and I, Beverly and I, were concerned that the baby would be born before the portrait was finished. We were finished before the birth.
With Beverly's portrait I hung a picture behind her. The picture is a free copy of
Hobbema's "Avenue of Trees" --1689. I painted a frame around my painted copy. The only other object is Beverly, who leans/sits on a table in front of this painting, covering its lower left corner with her face. She is showing her pregnancy and the portrait stops at the knees.
After the last sitting I told Beverly I would clean up the frame (for the Hobbema) and match the last minute changes, but I never did, I couldn't, it was complete. (George Deem, notebook, 1981.
"Another" portrait: this is one of several entries about portraits in the notebook )
