03Mar
Godfrey is complete and alive. He’s staring right at me in the home studio. Intent and serious, one can only imagine what the young man went through before and after he left the Sully Plantation. What brave men and women will do for freedom will always continue to amaze me. Something that can be so simple to us who live in this great nation can easily be taken for granted, yet when you don’t have freedom it just makes the concept much more treasured and precious.
This evening, we’re honored to bring this world a visual of Mr. Godfrey. Well, part of him. This is just a preview. His portrait won’t be displayed publicly until his unveiling. We’ll be posting more details about that event in the near future.
I’ll save the portrait process description for later once we post the entire portrait. What I will say now is that we chose a toothy cream paper. (Paper is important!) It gives a very vintage antique feel as well as it has the frayed edges. The tooth of the paper is rougher which gives it a more drawing feel and less of the realistic feel I’m guilty of. It gives a nice texture to the clothing.
That’s all I have to say for now. Let me know what you think and any comments on the 1/8 part of the portrait. Love to hear what you have to say.
Blessings,
Grace
Tags: commission, Godfrey, Grace, Graphite, portrait, Sully Historic Plantation
14Jan
The slave Mr. Godfrey.
Meet Mr. Godfrey, Richard Bland Lee’s runaway slave. This is the image that Grace will be drawing a custom graphite portrait for the Sully Historic Site. This particular portrait is the closest resemblance of Mr. Godfrey from the only information we have in the runaway slave advertisement.
I can only imagine what both of these men went through.
Mr. Lee was willing to pay $50 for Mr. Godfrey in 1807. Quite a bit of money back then. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, $50 was worth $1092.58 in 1913 (the year when they began calculating inflation). I can only imagine what it be worth 100 years earlier. Given that Mr. Godfrey was a house slave, I might assume that Mr. Lee thought ‘highly’ or ‘fondly’ (as if an owner could paradoxically equivocate feelings of admiration to a purchased slave) of Mr. Godfrey. Maybe a more reasonable thought is that Mr. Lee just wanted his ‘property’ back.
Continue reading »
Tags: Events, Godfrey, Graphite, photo-shoot, Photography, Richard Bland Lee, Sully Historic Plantation, Virginia
18Dec
Richard Bland Lee from the Sully Historic Plantation advertised in a newspaper, in 1807, about a house slave, Godfrey, who who ran away.
What’s more custom than working on a portrait of someone who doesn’t exist? What’s your answer?
We’ve been commissioned by the Sully Historic Site to make a visual representation – a portrait – of Godfrey. Continue reading »
Tags: Commissions, Godfrey, linkedin, Richard Bland Lee, Sully Historic Plantation
05Dec
© 2009 Pennington Studio
The other day at the studio, I was carrying on a lovely conversation with my oil painting. Just the first layer of paint and he was already there, lovingly holding his horse and boldly claiming his first equine. This beautiful three year old mustang pony, named Shania, was his 13th birthday present.
“He was always so thrilled to walk up to a large horse,” says Spencer’s mother, “but he would runaway in terror from a big dog!” Spencer was always encouraged by his parents and has been riding horses for the past six years. He has trained Shania in everything about riding and obeying. She was a wonderful model as well. She didn’t freak out with the flashes and posed very nicely.
Along with Shania, Spencer is being honored with his childhood love through a custom photo-shoot and oil painting. His outfit is not a normal apparel for him, but this is the feel we wanted to present within the painting and for the viewers. We searched for a medieval type getup and never came across a style we liked. John Robert and I ended up making the shirt. (My two years of sewing lessons came in handy?) His hair is naturally long and medieval, and his own cowboy belt completed the ensemble.
You look at Spencer and feel like this portrait is what he was born for.
Come and see the progress of the painting at the studio.
Grace
Tags: Commissions, horse, linkedin, painting, photo-shoot, Photography
02Dec
How many families have colored calibrated monitors for processing photos? The Bracewell and Shepherd family does. They are a family of keen eyed photographers. This makes them one of the coolest family in my opinion (albeit biased). So when Pennington Studio was asked to photograph their family this fall, we were honored.
A family that photographs together stays together.
Continue reading »
27Nov
Pennington Studio was commissioned for a custom oil painting, painted by Grace. In this painting a crab feast was needed, so when Grace asked me to photograph the feast to composite into the original reference photo (also taken by me), it got my problem solving juices flowing.
Continue reading »
Tags: Commissions, composite, crabs, Photography
20Nov
Because of sketchy weather that morning, the show was moved indoors in which we had to forgo our original setup. Thankfully, plan B worked out really well for the quaint space Continue reading »
Tags: Events, Walney Park
16Oct
Whatever the weather may be, the Art in the Garden show will still take place. If it is raining it will be held inside rather then outside. So join us from 1pm to 4pm this Sunday, October 18th, over at the Walney visitor center in Ellanor C Lawrence Park.
Tags: Events, Show, Walney Park
09Oct
Come join us as we show our work and kick off Pennington Studio!
View Larger Map
Tags: Events, Virginia, Walney Park
30Sep
We will be showing and selling some of our work at the ‘3rd Annual Fall Art in the Garden Show and Benefit.’ It will be at Walney Park (off route 28) on Sunday, October 18th from 1-4pm. A portion of all art sales will be donated to the Walney Garden Guild to help “fund vital projects for the park.” So come out and enjoy the art. Stay tuned for more information.
Tags: Events, Show, Walney Park
Recent Comments