Bloomington Portrait Group creating in person once again

Since January 2017, a group of Bloomington artists has gathered to create portraits of local people with interesting faces and interesting lives.

Ten members did so again on Thursday, Oct. 28 — the first in-person, indoor session since COVID-19 shut them down in early 2020. Bloomington poet PDVNCH was the model for the Bloomington Portrait Group. It's his second time as model, following a January 2020 session.

PDVNCH (pronounced Pee-dove-inch) was a colorful subject for his second sitting, wearing clothing by Australian fashion brand Coogi, beads by DVNCH in his hair and wide, rainbow-colored, sparkle-rimmed glasses.

Like all the group's models, the storyteller sat motionless in a chair for 20 minutes, followed by a five-minute break, for a total of two hours. During one break, PDVNCH read a poem he wrote about his first session with the group, providing verbal artistry the 10 participants listened to while rising from their various canvases to stretch.

His poem painted an oral canvas of his thoughts about being a model, beginning with the word "Unfinished." What followed depicted PDVNCH's first session, setting the scene and telling of two-dimensional renderings showcasing just one portion of a whole person.

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When the break was over, PDVNCH struck the same pose while the artists picked up brushes and pencils. The only sounds were brushes being swirled in water and pencils scratching the surface of paper and canvas, leaving behind lines, color and shading. Seven artists chose to create in black, white and gray; three used color — oil, watercolor and pencil.

While some of the artists could remember creating a portrait of PDVNCH from the first visit, Angela O'Malley of Ellettsville could not. Last week's gathering was her first time attending, something O'Malley enjoyed. She created a graphite portrait.

O'Malley, like most of the group, is also a member of the Upland Plein Air group that meets outdoors to paint the landscapes before them. An interest in learning how to better draw people brought O'Malley to the Bloomington Portrait Group.

Another participant, Barbara Coffman, started attending sessions in 2019.

"I thought it would be fun to draw faces," she said, adding that she believes she can now draw faces but they may not look exactly like the subject.

Even so, Coffman enjoys the sessions. "It's a lot of fun. It's informal."

Arkady Roytman, a professional freelance illustrator, is a newcomer to the portrait group who says painting the human figure from life is his "main love. It allows me to loosen up and try techniques and materials I don't regularly get to use in my commercial work."

Roytman said the social and creative outlet of the portrait group is what he enjoys most, but it also helps him build up his portraiture portfolio.

Coffman and the others are grateful to Claude Cookman, who began the group as an offshoot of the Upland Plein Air Painters, which was itself branched off from the Bloomington Watercolor Society.

Bess Lee, a member of the watercolor, plein air and portrait groups, said both the plein air and portrait groups have grown. They are no longer offshoots of the Bloomington Watercolor Society, with each having their own members and purpose. She's looking forward to the next model — one of Bloomington's first female city firefighter, Tania Daffron.

"Claude's intention for the portrait group is to have Who's Who in our community. That's good for us to know," Lee said. "The thing that Claude did that was amazing was keeping this group going during COVID."

The impetus for the portrait group was to continue creating art with others during the months when it is too cold to venture outdoors, something necessary for plein air artists. In January 2017, Cookman recruited the first model, Priscilla Rocha, who was a BFA student at Indiana University, where Cookman taught visual communications in the School of Journalism for 24 years.

"I saw a vacuum and tried to fill it," Cookman said after the latest session.

The group met every other Thursday at the Banneker Community Center, the Monroe County Public Library and St. Mark's United Methodist Church, until COVID-19 began to spread.

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During the pandemic restrictions, Cookman kept members active by sending out monthly challenges — create a self-portrait first without and then with a mask, draw a portrait of your pet, draw someone you love (grandkids and spouses were popular), and work in a medium you rarely use.

After completing the assignment, participants posted their work on the group's listserve to share.

When COVID restrictions lessened in May 2021, the group began meeting at the Switchyard Park shelter house. But it's getting colder, so the group now is meeting indoors at The Vault at Gallery Mortgage on East Sixth Street.

Cookman is hopeful the group will continue to not only meet but grow. Since its inception, Cookman has found models representing Bloomington's diversity — in age (from 8 to 90), ethnicity, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.

He's also recruited models who represent people he labels as "people who make Bloomington a great place to live," including IU first lady Laurie Burns McRobbie, radio personality and musician Tom Roznowski, WFIU Soul Kitchen host Brother William Morris, retired Unitarian-Universalist minister Bill Breeden, Judge Frances Hill, IU women's basketball star Alexis Gassion, former Herald-Times editor Bob Zaltsberg and Vickie Pierce, executive director of Community Kitchen of Monroe County.

"One thing all our models have in common is their interesting faces," Cookman said, adding he's always looking for more people to pose for the group.

All the models are paid $15 an hour for the two-hour session. They are asked to bring props that relate to their work or hobbies. Cookman said those have ranged from books to knitting to musical instruments and sports equipment.

"The most intriguing prop was Kundalini, a boa constrictor snake, which the model wore around his neck. The session got lively when the room warmed up and the snake started slithering across the floor. At that point, we let the model break pose and retrieve his reptilian friend."

Anyone interested in joining the group or posing as a model can contact Cookman at ccookman@indiana.edu.

Contact Carol Kugler at ckugler@heraldt.com, 812-331-4359 or @ckugler on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: PDVNCH models for Bloomington Portrait Group