The Portrait of Noémie

Executing The Plan

I spent time at art store picking out a canvas. I disliked most standard sizes—too square, too rectangle, not rectangle enough, etc. I wanted a size ratio that was good for both portrait and landscape. I planned to stick to one size for all my work. I went with a 24 by 36 inches. This was my first time buying a canvas. Previously I had only painted on papers and paper boards using oils, acrylics, watercolor and pencil colors. This would be my first painting on canvas.

Noémie wasn’t a class assignment but a personal side project. So every day after school, from 3:30pm, when almost everyone had gone home, I stayed behind in the main studio classroom downstairs and began to work. There was always a handful of others who remained to work on their own projects as well. So I was never alone there. After-schools was one of the reasons Canterbury remained so fond of in my memory. It had become a sanctuary for creativity, my home away from home.

Prepare The Sketch

I picked the sketch which Noémie stands with both arms up behind her head tying her hair into a bun. I cut a rectangular hole on a piece of paper with the ratio of the canvas, placed that over the sketch to frame the picture. I came to a decision that this would be best as a head-to-waist portrait, and not a full figure painting. I re-drawn Noémie with her arms down, but the hair remained bundle up without anything to keep it in place. I had no reference for the hands, so I left them empty for now. I then transfer the sketch onto canvas by drawing a grid on both.

Painting Commenced

Without much further ado, I poured five basic acrylic colors onto a palette, sat down on a donkey and began painting, starting with the eyes, then the lips, and spread outward the whole face. I painted into the night while keeping an eye on the clock on the wall. Five minutes to midnight and I started to wrap the palette up, leaned the canvas against a wall and ran outside with my back pack to catch the last bus home. The trip took an hour and I filled it with a mix tape of favorite music recorded from radio and CDs.

A couple days in, I was heading into Art History class. Noémie and Yvonne were up to something exciting and secretive. “We're going down to check it out.” Noémie said, as they both ran happily downstairs against the throngs of students going up.

When they came back up into the classroom, their mood had changed. Noémie trailed behind Yvonne, face vague, lost in thoughts.

“Are they happy?” I studied their expressions. “Oh oh, definitely not happy.”

She saw me from across the room and approached urgently. “Bao, my breasts are not that big!” She said firmly, controlling her voice as not letting others hearing in. She grabbed the green binder, pulled the sketch out and drew rapidly on it with a pen, lowering and reducing her breasts size. As she drew, she lifted up her left arm and then her right to demonstrate where each breast starts and ends. I realized I didn't know much about girl's body. I stood there red-faced.

Fix The Problem

I taped the sketch next to the canvas, stood back and observed the two. Clearly I wasn't painting Noémie's but someone else. I knew who that was — Pamela Anderson. Around 1996 was the time Anderson burst onto the scene with her famous assets. She was everywhere on TV and magazines, and I obviously was much impressed.

Dipping my brush into the acrylics, I began to paint out the famous influence and replaced it with the corrected one.

With the new version, Noémie was now able to smile again. So we began making plan for the hands. In printmaking class, Noémie pulled out a chair and sat down, mimicking the pose in the painting. She crossed her legs and rested both hands on an upper thigh. I sat opposite her and sketched out her hands. The teacher, Tim Desclouds, came in and gave us our etching lesson. He wrote on the blackboard and explaining. Instead of stopping to pay attention, we continued on. Noémie turned her head to look at the blackboard but her body was still as a statue. I looked up at Tim often, acting like I was paying attention. I didn't think he knew it wasn't his lesson I was writing down.

The Hands

Noémie gave me three variations of hand pose. I picked the version I liked best. When I was about to draw it onto canvas, I realized I didn't know how big the hands should be in relation to her body in the picture. I had to wait for the next school day to find out.

Looking at her real hands gave me no clue as to how big they should be in the picture. I thought and came up with a method. I instructed her to place a hand on her face, with the bottom of her palm on her chin, I then make note where the tip of her middle finger touched. It landed slightly above her brow. I then measured her face in the painting and found the corresponding size for the hands. Then I drew them onto canvas, but immediately didn't like how they made the picture look. The hands fell too far outside the canvas, got cut off too much, making the portrait look badly composed. I could move the drawing up higher, but the hands' perspective looked wrong. I had to wait for the next school day for a repose. Another evening wasted, it was agonizing.

Etching class again, Noémie sat down in the same pose, but raised her hands above her thigh, hovering about her belly button. For an alternative pose she raised them even higher. I finished the sketches before Tim came in.

I tried out both versions of the sketches and found the medium height, the one around her belly button, the best. A bit of fingers still get cut off, but was most natural looking. I proceeded. I painted a book under her hands to give them something to rest on, but didn't like it, for it was distracting. I painted it out with shades of green, and by chance that made her hands appeared to be resting on her own gown.

The Background

The background went through three revisions. First it was an ornate fireplace mantle. All the art nouveau elements were too cluttered, they competed with her. I simplified them, but ultimately painted them all out, replacing with just a brown background. Hints of the decorative elements were added, but never given full detail. The picture frame in the background was touching the outline of the hair. Tim Desclouds walked by, stopped to observe, he advised me not let them get too close, they confuse the viewer as to which one is at the front and which is at the back. I extended the hair, painted a loose strand over the frame, and that help pushed the frame into the background.

A week in, the painting slowed down as it came closer and closer to being finished. A small group of visitors came into the studio. One teacher was giving them a tour. They congregated behind me and watched. One young man stepped closer and asked, “You painted this? You painted this?” I nodded. He was very surprised. He stepped further back, came closer and asked the same questions again. Realizing he was repeating, he changed, “You're a student here? You're not a student. You're a teacher, right?”

The group moved on and he had to follow. Later he came back all by himself. Putting his face right up to the picture, pulled away and said, “Talk, talk! Talk to me!” He walked side to side behind me, viewing it from all angle. “She can talk, she can definitely talk!” He left quietly, but I could still see him lurking behind the studio doors. I amused myself thinking, if Noémie was sitting here, would he had come up to her and said, “Talk, talk! You look like you can talk!”

Mrs. Spence, head of visual arts department, viewed the finished work with critical eye. “It's a shame the fingers get cut off.” She remarked.

Mr. Gamble observed solemnly, then turned and said to me, “You've immortalized her.”

•   •   •

By the end of my years at Canterbury, I had a few close friends whose I, regrettably, didn't remember their last names. But with Noémie, I remembered every letter and French accent in hers — Noémie Côté LaRochelle, and how she preferred just Noémie Côte. She had streaming golden locks of hair, of a muse, of early morning light through a young artist's window.

B.Ng — January 29, 2019