Eugene weekly., March 10, 2016, Page 21, Image 21

VISUAL ARTS
BY ANDY VALENTINE
DETAIL OF ‘LINNA’ BY BRET PENDLEBURY
FACE TIME
Artist Bret Pendlebury puts a fresh
spin on portraiture
W
e’re all well acquainted with portraits.
We’ve all seen da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,”
Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl
Earring” and Van Gogh’s self-portrait with
bandaged ear. We’ve been subjects in our
own portraits, from selfies snapped at wild house parties
to those bizarre, neck-cricking high-school IDs. Portraits
are displayed in magazine ads, on business cards, in
mugshots, passports and newspaper headlines.
So perhaps it’s this abundance of portraits — the fact
that faces are all around us — that pushes them out of the
popular canon.
In recent years, artistic focus has strayed toward
abstraction and kitschy cat paintings. But some out there
still embrace the portrait, and Miami-born painter Bret
Pendlebury is no exception. Nine months ago, this
33-year-old artist came to Eugene from Philadelphia,
seeking relaxation and a solid dose of the great outdoors.
He’s had plenty of time to explore since, and it seems he
doesn’t stray far from nature.
Hunkered down in a small, shared studio in the
shadow of Skinner’s Butte, Pendlebury sets to painting
his portraits. This is where his true love lies. After
inheriting a collection of old yearbook photos from his
grandmother, he was immediately drawn to the faces.
“It was this unlimited amount of people to paint from,”
Pendlebury says. “[The photos] were from an all-women’s
school in the ’30s, which is when my grandmother went
to college. I just loved the old blank smiles, and I liked the
hairstyles. That’s just what happened to inspire me.”
However vintage his subject matter, though,
Pendlebury’s paintings are lemony fresh. Like all great
painters, he uses his source material sparingly, shadowing
the initial product while creating something entirely new.
His paintings are lush, unique and technically profound,
a result of his keen internal palette and creative use of
brushstrokes. Unlike many portrait artists, Pendlebury
also shuns the grid technique, in which features are
drawn on a ruled framework in order to keep proportions
correct. He sketches freehand straight from the photos.
This technique has its trials and errors, but with practice
comes eventual success.
Hunkered down in a small, shared studio in the shadow of Skinner’s Butte,
Pendlebury sets to painting his portraits. This is where his true love lies.
After inheriting a collection of old yearbook photos from his grandmother,
he was immediately drawn to the faces.
“Portraits were hard for me for a while,” he says. “But
I think it was the challenge that I liked. Getting the eyes
right and the lips somewhat proportioned. It’s just
something that I’ve stuck with.”
When Pendlebury was 10, his grandfather, a Carolina
native and watercolor artist, taught him how to paint. An
architect by day, his grandfather’s work leaned more
toward landscapes and buildings. The fact that such
structure flows in his veins speaks to Pendlebury’s talent
for working freehand. It also provides insight into his
process, which starts from a dense brushstroke foundation
and works up toward finer details.
“I use a hatching brushstroke, which a lot of people
would compare to Impressionism,” he says. “I never
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$6
Music that goes
straight to the heart
intentionally did it to be like Impressionism but it turned
out that way. That’s just how I started painting.”
Pendlebury paints on tan paper — another of his many
idiosyncrasies — which forces him to start with dark
colors and work toward light. As anyone with a muddy
brown splotch at the center of their palette will tell you,
starting dark can lead to a mess. This technique hinges on
careful planning, but this local artist pulls it off perfectly.
The result is a vibrant, distinctive work of art, a face you’d
be glad to pass on the street.
So let’s remember — it’s not the face that’s lost its
magic; it’s how we see it that’s turned things stale. ■
To view more of Bret’s artwork, visit bretpendlebury.com or see it face to face
at the Starlight Lounge, 830 Olive St., through April 1.
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eugeneweekly.com • March 10, 2016
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