Sue Rubira makes her mark on BP Portrait

Sue Rubira with her portrait of her mother Maggie
oil on canvas, 1020 x 760mm (40" x 29")
copyright the artist / photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

When I walked into the exhibition of the BP Portrait Award 2009, one of the very first paintings I saw - from across the room and about 30 feet away - was a painting of Maggie by her daughter Sue Rubira. I was so pleased! We'd had an email discussion about the BP Portrait Award after I'd seen her watercolour painting of Maggie in the show at the Bankside Gallery, after which I wrote

I also very much liked Sue Rubira's giant and striking face of "Maggie". You can see the finished version on her blog here and also see stages on the blog posts prior to that. Given that one of her previous paintings came second in the 2006 Singer and Friedlander (watercolour) competition, I'm rather expecting to see another of Sue's excellent portraits winning a prize at the BP Portrait Award exhibition at the NPG

Making A Mark (2nd March 2007) - 21st Century Watercolours at Bankside Gallery

Sue and I subsequently exchanged emails about how it was sad that the BP Portrait didn't accept watercolour paintings. I expressed a hope that I'd one day one see one of her portraits - in oil - in the BP portrait exhibition.

Two years later, that hope was fulfilled and the portrait is brilliant!

It was a huge pleasure for me to meet with Sue for the very first time yesterday morning. It's always so nice to be put a face to the artist behind a painting and an email address!

She told me a little bit about how she works. The portrait is of her mother Maggie and was painted from life (ie no photos!) in two months - working most days. Fortunately her studio is very near to where her mother lives which made life much simpler for both model and artist!

I don't want it to look like a photo! ......My Mum had to put up with my face in her face all the time - two inches from hers - while I studied each part of her face.

Sue Rubira

Sue's camera is her sketchbook and she starts her portraits by taking hundreds of photos - without using flash - to sort out pose and lighting. Using a digital camera she can produce the design, the set-up, placement on the canvas and the position of the model in relation to natural lighting. In this instance her Mum was top-lit from a skylight. Sue explained that the photos are then put away and she starts to create the portrait using Michael Harding handmade oil paint and painting from life every day. As she explained, it was the way she was taught. When she was a student (at Bristol and the Royal College of Art) she was never allowed to use a camera to develop her art so she had to develop her skills in painting from life. Which, for me, is a very cogent explanation of why Sue's work is so good!

I'm also very impressed with Sue's Mum for being so patient during the sittings! Greater love hath no Mum than when she sits for her child!

What was fascinating is that although this portrait is highly realistic in a classical way, it seemed to attract a lot of very positive comments about Maggie in terms of being a somewhat generic Mum. For example, Josef from the Pollocks blog said it reminded him an awful lot of his Mum!

You can see how Sue developed this painting on her blog

• 1st bit of painting maggie(1oth February 2009)
• eyes sketched (12th February 2009)
  
• mapping out (13th February 2009)
• colouring (14th February 2009)
  
• pupils (15th February 2009)
  
• reflections (15th February 2009)
  
• eyelids (16th February 2009)
  
• Skin (19th February 2009)
  
• Lips (22nd February 2009)
• cheeks (23rd February 2009)
• chin (24th February 2009)
• more chin (26th February 2009)
• neck (27th February 2009)
• more neck (2nd March 2009)
• forehead (3rd March 2009)
• hair (8th March 2009)
• more hair (10th March 2009)
• first layer of jumper (12th March 2009)
• second layer (13th March 2009)
• nearly finished (20th March 2009)
• finished (20th March 2009)
• framed (23rd March 2009) - note the skylight!
• initials (23rd March 2009)
• close up (24th March 2009)

What I like most about this painting is the way it celebrates the art of painting. It's highly realistic but at no point looks like a photograph when you see it in the gallery - it looks like and is a painting.

...and painting people rather than photographing them and copying photographs is, after all, what the BP Portrait Award is all about.