Giving up the grin

Imagine an orchestra conductor, hands up, face full of emotion as he pushes his musicians to hit a note and hold it. Or, consider the guitarist and bass player on stage, as they synch up, guiding each other’s notes and rhythms into harmonic rock ’n’ roll bliss.

That’s what it was like for me as I sat in a chair Thursday at Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d’Alene while oil artist Kelly Sullivan painted my portrait.

With an array of brushes splayed between her fingers, Kelly danced around the easel, her eyes darting back and forth from my face to the canvas.

She leaned in and leaned back, plucking and replacing brushes, dabbing and stroking. The occasional stomp of one of her boots on the gallery’s wooden floor gave audible rhythm to her lively painting style.

“I want that smirk,” Kelly told me, as I smiled at her before we began.

Following her directions, I slowly turned my head from side to side as she appraised my face, her hand on her chin, eyebrows raised.

It felt odd. I had never met Kelly before, and never before sat to have my portrait painted, but the twinkle in her eye made it all OK. It was obvious she was in her element, doing what she loves to do.

To get the proper light, she had me tip my head back slightly.

Holding a smile for 90 minutes is harder than it sounds, but Kelly was intent on capturing my grin. It seemed to please her, and I wanted to give it to her.

If my mind drifted, and I stopped focusing on smiling, my face relaxed, wiping the grin away.

But Kelly pulled it back. When I looked at her face, her sparkling eyes met mine. She had her own lips pulled up and her eyebrows raised, and my smirk returned.

She was conducting my facial expressions with her own, and knowing this made me giggle. I laughed a lot while she painted.

We chatted a bit.

We soon found some seriously common ground. We’re both Jersey girls living in Idaho. Kelly grew up about 35 miles away from where I did. We had similar backgrounds, and love is what landed each of us in the Gem State.

A lot of people in Coeur d’Alene know her. Before my time in the Lake City, she and her husband owned a restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, Tubbs Cafe. Now, they live in Idaho’s Teton Valley.

She told me she had gone to Italy last year for a few weeks to study portrait painting.

Previously, she had painted portraits from photographs, and brought some with her, but the Italians would have none of that.

Kelly soon discovered that painting a live subject adds another dimension to the process, a challenge, but one she welcomes and enjoys.

The next time my grin began to droop, I imagined she and I were doing this somewhere in Italy. I had visions of the two of us sipping espresso and saying, “Ciao!”

I burst into laughter.

“Sorry. I was pretending I was in Italy,” I told her.

She said, “OK, so am I.”

And so it went.

The assignment was an unusual one. I was told to go have my portrait painted and write about it. Since I’d never done the portrait-sitting thing before, I didn’t know what to expect. I had visions of  tortuously remaining still for hours with nothing to entertain me. 

ObviousIy, I was very wrong.

Kelly’s sprightly manner of painting is a joy to watch, and an honor to be a part of.

Her inner dialogue bubbles out occasionally as she gracefully waves her brush and touches it to the canvas, “Up, up, uppppp...ummhmm.”

When the moment came to see the finished product, I was pleased. It looked like me, and it was unique, unlike any photo of myself I’d ever seen. Yes, there it was, that smirk.

I emailed a web link to Kelly’s art blog, which includes a photo of the portrait, to my parents back in New Jersey.

“Your portrait is beautiful! She captured you in word and in brush,” my mom responded.    I think that says it all, and has to be the highest kind of praise anyone can receive, that of a mother from New Jersey.   I can guarantee that anyone who has a portrait done by Kelly will walk away with more than a painting. They’ll have a friend.     Kelly’s blog and images of other work she has done can be found online at www.kellysullivanfineart.com.