Self portraits

Harry Carmean has drawn and painted himself throughout his long career, such as can be seen in these examples. The drawings were done in the 1950's and 60's and the painting of the artist drawing was done around 2010. Carmean follows a tradition of self portraiture which can be seen in artists like Rembrandt who painted themselves throughout the span of their careers.

Jack Albee mime who posed for Harry Carmean

One of Harry Carmean's favorite people to draw was the mime Jack Albee, who modelled at Art Center where Carmean taught. Jack was a member of the famous Albee theater family and had a face that artist's love to draw - full of character, wit and personality. The photo of him in costume was taken by Harry Carmean in the later 1960's at a party at his home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles.  Jack Albee was an inspiring, upbeat person to be around and as can be seen here, he inspired some fantastic drawings and paintings from his friend Harry Carmean.

Paintings from the model

Harry Carmean’s figure paintings are just about always created from his imagination but there are a few exceptions in which he painted from a live model. Carmean prefers to work from his imagination, often using multiple preparatory drawings rather than setting up models.  Models seen in Carmean’s paintings included the well known artist's model Lala Lezlie (there is an earlier blog on her), Jack Albee (a mime),  Lila Livingston, - a dark haired ballerina whose features are in some of Carmean’s acrobat paintings of the 1980's, and Maureen Tilyou, the woman seen here seated in the red chair. 

Harry Carmean portraits

Few people realize that Harry Carmean excelled at portraiture, creating some compelling and insightful portraits of his family and friends. In the 1990's he was commissioned by the royal family to paint a large portrait of the current King of Arabia seen in the bottom photo. (The painting is currently hanging in the royal palace in Arabia). The group portrait above it was done in the 1960's and features artists Helen Lundeburg, Nick Brigante (far right) and Lorser Feitelson, (far left) as well as writer Steven Longstreet (upper left with cigar). Unfortunately this painting was destroyed at a later date.