To celebrate Portland’s musical creativity, the Portland Musicians Portraiture Project attempts to capture an image of local talent through the art of portraiture. Brian has commissioned Old Master-style American oil painter Alexander Rokoff (www.rokoffstudio.com) to paint individual life-size portraits of some of Portland’s most influential musicians (2008 onward) for The Falcon Art Community’s permanent collection. Framed, each portrait is about 9’ by 4’.
Even with a 600 year history, the craft of portraiture is mostly lost in modern times, with the few great American portraiture artists residing in Los Angeles and New York. Alexander Rokoff lives in Portland and is part of the Falcon Art Community. His genius is creating paintings that vividly express his subjects’ liveliness and capture a feeling of the person. He has been appropriately been described as “the painter of souls.” The almost lost art of portraiture is truly avant garde in the new century and Portland artists and collectors are fortunate to have Rokoff living, working and teaching among us.
The musicians were approached for the project based on their local and national influence and their visual interest, and selected primarily from the indie music scene. The project is well under way with portraits of Isaac Brock, Storm Large, Michael Papillo and Lewie Longmire completed. Elliot Smith is the next planned subject and will be painted in Rembrant’s palette, appropriately named ‘the dead palette.’
Besides immortalizing some of our local musical heroes, the Portland Musician Portraiture Project commission directly supports a local artist. The Falcon Art Community believes in the importance of directly supporting artists in the community, rather than depending on art administrations. Brian implements this philosophy by commissioning works of art as well as offering affordable studio space.
“The Expression of the Soul” Portraiture Project links two relatively unconnected genres of the creative world—visual art and music—both of which are well represented in the Falcon’s studios, and upon completion, will be accessible for public viewing for the next 600 years.
