Mark Hayden demo, Haverhill MA

Sunday, Sept. 22nd, Mark did his first demo--it was at the Buttonwoods Historic Building.  He was invited by the Haverhill Art Association as they are trying to revive their membership.  It was very well attended, probably 50 people.  It was an excellent demo and here are some photos of the model and the artist with the portrait.  In less than 2 hours, Mark skillfully showed everyone how he proceeds with a portrait.  He works on sizes of features and relationships from the center of the face, out, with straight paint, no turps or mediums.  He plans ahead about the idea, the drawing idea, how dark and how colorful it should be. Working with color and value at the same time, he uses extra long bristle brushes that have bounce and can be easily shaped to conform to the shape of the stroke anticipated; he goes back and forth from side to side, watching for temperature in the light areas.  After a break, the drawing should be checked and the dark areas.  He likes to paint to music and depending on what he is doing, it could be slower or faster.  He mentioned that Daniel Greene taught him to keep a clean area on the palette to mix and to bring yourself to the painting.  Everyone enjoyed his demo and most likely, like me, picked up another good idea to experiment with.  What did he have to say about doing this demo?  "I'm not used to thinking about everything I do."