TREVOR PORTRAIT by Trevor Burrowes
For a long time, I viewed easel painting as meaningless. When the real world was there to be explored, what good was a flat representation of it that hangs on a wall? I wanted to do practical things with the world you could touch and feel. Perhaps I should have studied architecture and not painting.
Although I had modeled for many portrait painters, professionals and students, no reproduction of my likeness produced in me more than academic interest until I modeled for Tony Ryder’s students late in 2008. One student produced an inspired pencil drawing that I treasure. But what really changed the way I look at paintings was a painting of me by Deborah Allison. It also changed how I view myself.
Someone said of the pencil image that it was noble. It was a good likeness showing me in the most flattering light, a three-quarter view from slightly below that could be of any great hero or knight on a horse. Noble , strong, thoughtful. But the painting by Deborah Allison was something quite different.
As it proceeded, I thought it expressed sadness and I wasn’t convinced that I would like it. It was a tight painting and there’s nothing worse than a tight, detailed rendition that is drawn wrong. It took me some time to realize that this was drawn right. Very right. So right in fact that it redefined the way I see myself. It is what I now look to to provide clarity and stability about my image.
I wasn’t trained to do realistic painting but I know enough about it to appreciate how this work follows the rules of painting. One senses the exact texture of the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and beard. While a novice would be distracted by trying to depict each hair individually, Deborah has convincingly depicted these features through daubs of paint. This takes great skill and learning.
Despite the filtering out of non-painterly detail, the representation is relentless, It has no interest in flattery, yet it is not unflattering. It allows my countenance to speak for itself.
It is me at ground zero. The previously mentioned equestrian knight might fall off his horse and feel shame, but Deborah’s Trevor has no horse to fall from. He’s firmly planted on the ground. If he’d been brought up to feel soft and helpless, or that he must overreach to gain acceptance, this image tells him something different. He is strong and durable, even stoic. While imperfect, he is quite adequate the way he is. I now look for this persona in the mirror
When I study this picture I can hear the sound of my voice…as if she found a way to paint that too. Time has pressed against this face, yet it endures with considerable beauty – the beauty of time itself.
