Our March meeting featured the artistry of Tricia Kaman, a well known Cleveland artist, demonstrating The Pastel Portrait.  She is especially known for her oil and pastel portraits, although she also loves doing the occasional landscape, still life or floral.  Her art has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has garnered numerous awards.  We thank Tricia for a mesmerizing evening of art.  There were 36 members and seven guests in attendance, who sat so quietly at times that you could have heard a pin drop!  We also thank her assistant, Riki, for coming early to set up all the gear and for being an excellent model for Tricia’s pastel portrait.

As an introduction to her work, Tricia started her presentation with a short video interview from her exhibit at the Agora Gallery, in the center of New York City’s Chelsea Art district.   Her well-known oil painting, Brenda's Miraculous Medal, was exhibited there.  Tricia says that she sees the essence of the painting in her head and in this painting Tricia certainly captured that....Brenda, a police officer, in a relaxed state of meditation.

Tricia went to the Cooper School of Art and the Cleveland Institute of Art, where she studied under Joseph Cintron.  She has been painting professionally since 1974.  For the past 27 years, she has had an art studio in the Schoolhouse in Little Italy.  Her show at the Ursuline College Gallery just ended in February, where she exhibited 60 pieces of art.   Tricia then said, “Painters must speak through paint, not words, so enough words!”  She started her live model portrait demonstration.

Tricia uses a sanded tone canvas.  The rough surface allows her to build layers and the toned color allows her to judge the values.  She likes to close one eye and create a rectangle with her hands to get the composition.  She begins the line charcoal sketch, leaving more space on the side the model is facing...a rule of thumb.  She puts in big shapes and gestures first, not worrying about the details.   Working with angled lines, not curves, she defines the relationship between the head, neck and shoulders.  Then, she placed the eyebrows.   Tip....turn the head one way or another, not square on.   Her understanding of anatomy and bone structure helps.  She likes to work from darks to light....Joseph Cintron taught her well....darks first!  Then, she moves to add the lightest light, using her fingers to blend the color.  She squints a lot to better see the values...another tip.  She was taught to ‘trust her eye’.  It will take her another 3 hours of work before this portrait of Riki is complete.

When asked how she became interested in doing portraits, she told us that she used to paint and sketch at amusement parks in the summer.  Having lived in Sandusky, she worked at Cedar Point and later at Geauga Lake.   Tricia and her husband started “Kaman’s Art Shops”, 47 years ago, which hires artists for theme parks.  They have two children who are artists - an architect and a sculptor.

The theme for the evening's refreshments was St. Patrick’s Day or everything ‘green’...   We thank our hosts, Mary Ann Gambitta and Lee Peters.  We enjoyed many delicious treats...Irish soda bread, Lee’s famous spinach dip, kolacky, shamrock and pistachio cookies, veggie tray....we hear that young Jaden ate all the broccoli off the tray!  Many people requested the recipe for the Irish soda bread....that Mary Ann made, using the recipe Sandi got from her friend Jenny!   This recipe is over 100 years old and came straight from Ireland. Click here for the recipe.