about Lib
“I retired from commercial art a little over 7 years ago and have been dedicated to painting for myself.
When starting a painting I have the idea and let the piece evolve as I paint. If I’m not painting a portrait, I usually draw from current events or a misdeed from the past that should never be forgotten.
It took be a couple of years to find my technique as well. To me, it lies somewhere between realism and folk art. The individual subjects may have a fair amount of realism. I try to keep subjects oddly on the same plane; I can achieve that with color and tone. I enjoy the challenge of working with color.
I don’t really think of myself as a painter but more as a visual architect who’s creating a story on a panel.”
Lib Mason is an award winning American portraitist, best known for her capricious portraits that convey an emotional response whilst exploring a world that lies within her subject.
Mason's practice is based on the "Flemish Method" of painting, a painstaking and technically skilled technique dating back to the early 15th century. Her version uses meticulous oil glazes applied over a pencil, watercolor, and oil base.
From an early age, Mason had a strong fascination for the human face, endlessly sketching the faces of her family and friends. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence) and embarked on a career as an editorial illustrator. Her diverse work was used in advertising, in editorial publications, and in architectural design. She has been featured in national magazines, such as Rolling Stone, WWW, Time Life, and Playboy, to name a few.
Mason has received several prestigious awards from the esteemed Boston Society of Illustrators, as well as the American Portrait Society. She has collaborated and designed special "artist brand" products for many global brands, and created a multi-million dollar line of collectable storybook figurines sold worldwide for the holiday market. One of her larger 3D pieces was exhibited in the Denver Art Museum.
Read: Lib Mason: Capturing the Soul in Every Stroke, from The ARTWORLD Post.
^^ Artist and painter, Lib Mason, describes her base painting process