International Artist Magazine August/September 2007 issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Who is the subject in your prize-winning portrait?

My Subject is Matti Milius, an art collector from Estonia. He says that the most famous artist in his collection is Ilya Kabakov.  For him, it all began in the 7th grade, when the mother of one of his friends started to give him original “ex-librises” for good marks in the sciences. His active collecting of art goes back to 1968. The basis of his collection is the principle of “gifts”. He goes to the artist that he likes and asks him to give one of his works as a gift. By now, his collection has become so famous that people want to give their works to him. He is a legend not only in his home town Tartu, but in the whole of Estonia.

 

For the Soviet authorities, he was a difficult case. He seemed to declare that there were no restrictions in art. Art gives you freedom. He was ready to sacrifice himself, in order to draw attention to art. For instance, he once decided, in the name of art, to swim naked in the fountain in front of the Tartu University library, founded in 1632. The militsia, the Soviet police, took him away immediately. He is happy. He is like a big child. Emotional. Spontaneous. He can start stamping his feet, complaining in a high voice, if he does not get some picture that he really wants. He is full of tricks, but is utterly sincere, honest and very frank. He does not expect a certain behavior from anyone, being quite unpredictable himself, and all this gives others creative freedom. He is excellent material for every artist. He has, of course, asked me to give this portrait to him, but I have been in no hurry to do so.

I chose this Subject because the art collector himself wanted his portrait to be painted, as a kind of ceremonial portrait. Several years ago, I had made a pastel portrait of him. For this portrait, he promised to wear a tie, put on shoes and socks and go to the barber. Some people think that Mati is a freak, but he is just different. He says with all his being, that people do not have to be alike. The picture should have another title: "Matti Milius, The Man Who is Different". Saying it now, I realize that in the Forum of the Portrait Art, I should say "Another Man Who Is Different".

This was the rebellious freedom that looked back at me when I saw him. How could you control it? How can you paint a person who loves modernism? He could have wanted to see in me a realist painter in the style of "the back of the realism has been broken, now let us consider the eulogy in the modernist key". He didn't expect anything, as a result my painting is in its most natural form with my free approach and ideas about art, I have created more mischievously impressionist and more exact realistic paintings. But here both sides seem to be in balance.

 

I pulled myself together, it was not the usual process. I had no time, every moment spent with the painting had to be the right one. I had to know exactly what I was doing. I was facing the problem of how to improvise on the highest level of freedom, controlling at the same time the process with the most precise methods.

 

What are the methods? To move from the dark shades to the light ones, leaving the lightest places for the “dessert”. The brushstrokes can both paint and draw – you have to look for the same everywhere before you take a new colour to the canvas.  You have to paint the whole picture at once. A good whole could contain details but a good detail doesn't always show the whole. Black is not a colour, it has to be mixed. Don't repeat yourself in the course of creating one picture, every stroke can reach the end, every stage has to aim at being the final one. The subject of the portrait is always more important than your picture He/she goes on living after you have completed the portrait. Do not paint during sitting breaks, do not listen to anyone who happens to comment on your unfinished picture, and finish before others, too, realize that you have gone too far. And finally "Don't think too much, while painting."

 

We agreed about the time of the meeting and I had a week to prepare myself. I chose the canvas of the size that made it possible to depict him full-size. I wanted a simple background but full of art. I was faced with the question of how to create a work of art about art. I decided to have the background of simple unprimed canvas. Matti's character seemed to resemble it – unvarnished, rough, brittle, a little rumpled but still classically approachable. I settled him on my painter father's chair. My father had died just a year ago. Matti and my father got along well. Next to him is a small table, that belonged to my father, Aleksander Suuman, where you see a coffee cup.

The background has a broken look, full of ideas, taken from reality. There are no fantasies in this picture and no imagined brushstrokes. The composition was completed without any drawings, it was based on pure emotion that gradually acquired a more realistic form. The painting itself lasted3-4 hours on one day and as long on the second day.

 

The history of the picture has been quite interesting. On April 28 - May 16, 2005 the picture was exhibited in London, in the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Art. It was chosen out of 800 portrait painting to be exhibited in the Mall Gallery. I was quite happy even then that two people from small Estonia were able to show themselves in such a distinguished place

 

My parents and the members of my family have encouraged me during my whole life. This has been very important to me. An artist cannot be alone. My mother has always and in any situation found something supportive to say. The support of the family is unconditional and the most important thing that makes it possible for me to exist as an artist. My mother, Laine Pukk, has been with me from the very beginning. The closeness of art is most felt when you are a child of artists. My first home, in a sense, was the staff room of the art school. In my childhood and youth, mother took care that the painting materials were always ready for me on the corner of the table. This approach worked so well that later I tempted my mother to paint more with the same trick – "everything is ready". My wife, Helge, has also always supported me. She understands that art is sacred and the rest of the family life should serve it. We realize that as human beings we are not perfect but that our respect for art and the space we make for the art, takes us closer to that perfection. Portrait painting gives me an opportunity to meet many people, many characters, and many destinies. All these become a part of my own life. But when the picture is finished and framed and the first person has seen it, I have to be ready to close that page. My family helps me with it.

 

My art training has included: Four years and three days a week, four hours each of children's art school combined with art history and sculpture. My mother was a teacher in the same school and it seemed that the lessons never stopped. Summer practice was out- of- doors, drawing at home every day. My mother took me to exhibitions. To all the exhibitions. On our way home we discussed what we had seen.

Six years of the Academy of Art in graphic art. Five years, six days a week every day, at 8.15AM, I sketched people, while in the afternoon we painted them. Then came the composition, applied art.

 

For six years I had the job of art director in a magazine, designing posters and book covers. For two years I had my own TV-show, painting and interviewing well-known people in Estonia simultaneously. For several years I directed different broadcast programmes on culture, art and religion. I have been teaching for years, promoting portrait art. The training programmes for art teachers of public schools have been especially successful. For sixteen years I have actively worked as a portrait painter. My principle is to paint every day. When there are no commissions, I paint landscapes. There is always a picture waiting to be painted.

I think that my training consists of the local realistic painting school, colour theory, composition lessons, visits to museums, everyday painting and my natural inclination to understand people and appreciate their individuality. My mother says "Don't use a photograph for painting people and if you cannot do it otherwise, try to paint yourself free of the photo.” I remember that in my childhood and youth it was a bit shameful to paint from a photo. This was not real art. I love the unhesitating honesty of the Russians, French emotion and Scandinavian freshness. I am fascinated by Henri De Toulouse Lautrec, Anders Zorn, Ivan N. Kramskoi, John Singer Sargent and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn etc.

I think that the picture that I am talking about is my greatest accomplishment. It has achieved recognition twice, in London and now here. 

I am a 44-year old artist, born in the Republic of Estonia, in Northern Europe. I was educated in the Soviet Estonia. I started my career as an artist when Estonia regained its independence. My whole life I have loved portrait painting. I actively started practicing it 16 years ago and I never stopped. I feel that portrait painting is the most perfect form of artistic expression. It combines the presence of art, the personal attitude of the artist toward the subject of the picture, the divine proportions /dimensions of the life that we lead, previous knowledge and practical experience. There cannot be a more perfect symbiosis. In order to create a good portrait, all these components have to be taken very seriously.

I have always felt confident as an artist. The artist in me has been content and happy. Yes, I have encountered difficulties, but only when I have not trusted myself completely or when I have thought that someone else knows more about me than I do.

 

When Estonia became free, Estonian art also became free. By now this degree of freedom has achieved the highest degree of modernism and postmodernism. Realistic portrait painting has not much space in the official art of the Republic of Estonia. Eight years ago, I was undecided about what to do, to move towards modernism, in the direction anticipated by the official art world, or to try and find new challenges in the classical art of portrait painting. I was not accepted in the Artists' Union of Estonia (too realistic, too little of art, do something abstract, your pictures do not make people think etc.). I went home, sad, and typed in my computer the words: classical art, realism, portrait painting, realistic art. I arrived at the homepage of Portrait Society of America. There I could also see the information on the portrait competitions. I had found my destination. By now my works have been recognized by our organization: Certificate of Recognition 2000 (Portfolio), Honors Award 2001, Award of Merit 2002, Certificate of Excellence 2006. In addition to that I have been twice, in 2004 and in 2005, represented in the British Royal Society of Portrait Painting. Honorable Mention 2003 Art Renewal Center. Certificate of Merit 2002 American Society of Portrait Artists.

 

I consider these achievements, also the achievements of the almost non-existing portrait painting of small Estonia.

 

At present I live with my wife, Helge, on the beautiful Coast of Palos Verdes Estates, California. We also spend a couple of months every year in Estonia.