Elaine in the Garden

Garth Herrick  "Elaine in the Garden" 2010  Private Collection

Garth Herrick (b. 1958) is best known as a figurative painter whose highly realistic technique usually involves long hours of planning, study and painstaking work. Herrick normally conducts carefully considered photographic posing sessions followed by detailed drawing and then a multitude of delicately applied layers of paint that need drying before each next stage is advanced. His stunningly life-like portraits usually require months of work to come to realization. Nonetheless, Herrick has got excellent alla prima chops as well! I was present on the day he whipped this juicy little beauty off in just a few hours. Herrick painted this for a good cause, taking part in Plein Air for Camphill, a non-traditional plein air event that benefits Camphill Special School in Kimberton, Pennsylvania, USA. (The artist he captured at work is fellow Philadelphia area painter Elaine Lisle.)

Herrick studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he won many of the top student awards. He is a sculptor and a photographer as well as a painter. His work has been the topic of several magazine articles and he received numerous honors and prizes, most recently from the Portrait Society of America. The artist's website can be found here.