When I walked into Keith Eddington's studio in Salt Lake City, I looked around at his portrait paintings and immediately felt at ease. "Why that's Judy Law," I remarked, adding that she was in some of my art classes at Brigham Young University many moons ago.
As we moved to the second portrait, Eddington said, "And this is a portrait of Sue Laing."'"Yes, I know, she happens to be my cousin."
Next was Doug Snow, one of the art professors I studied under at the University of Utah.
I also recognized other acquaintances and well-known personalities - LDS General Primary President Michelene Grassli, Doug Snarr and Arnold Friberg's wife, Heidi.
We both agreed it was a small world. This was the first time Eddington and I had ever met, but it wasn't long before we were conversing like old friends - comfortably and candidly.
Although 69-year-old Eddington is a portrait painter, not too many people are aware of it.
"I haven't been too public with what I'm doing," he admitted.
After all, it wasn't until he retired in 1988 that he became a professional portrait painter. But since that decision, he's completed about 18 portraits.
His latest one is of former Gov. Norm Bangerter. It was unveiled in the rotunda of the Utah State Capitol on Dec. 30 following a tribute dinner honoring the governor's distinguished public service. It now hangs outside Gov. Mike Leavitt's office.
"How did you get the commission?" I inquired.
Eddington said that former Utah Art Council director Carol Nixon brought Colleen Bangerter to his studio to see his oil portrait paintings. Apparently she was impressed, because the visit eventually ended in the commission.
When the portraitist began the painting, he followed the same steps he did for his other portraits.
"I study the person," he said. "Then I pick up on exterior coloration, study his personality and complement my observations with photography. From that point, I prepare a sketch (small painting)."
He takes the time and trouble to make the sketch in order to resolve problems in drawing, color and composition. When he's satisfied with it, he enlarges it on the final canvas by using charcoal and sprays it with fixative. He then dips his brushes into acrylic paint to cover the canvas with a monochromatic underpainting.
"Then I do the finished painting in oil," he said.
Eddington admitted that a portrait is one of the toughest things to do.
One challenge is to capture a likeness. "When I hit that likeness, something clicks. I then know I can make subtle changes and focus on the `abstract' qualities of a person."
He says that painting intellectually is only 50 percent of his challenge. The other 50 percent deals with the abstract or, in other words, the subconscious.
"I concentrate on perceiving the deep, inherent personality of the person. Hopefully people will feel that spirit and presence."
And they do. What he paints is not just a photographic likeness. It's a real, living person.
Eddington said that portrait painters often focus on the head and do little with the hands. That's because hands are difficult, and artists become easily frustrated.
"But I think hands are vitally important. In almost every case, hands are distinctive and tell a lot about the individual."
This remark caused me to glance at the hands in the paintings of Bangerter, Snarr and Friberg. They were all different, each revealing much about the subject's individual background and personality.
Also Eddington carefully selects the style, texture and color of clothing worn by the sitter. Accessories and other objects help identify profession and tastes.
Eddington's interest in portrait painting didn't suddenly emerge when he retired. In the late '40s and early '50s, he began his art training at the University of Utah. Toward the end of Eddington's undergraduate studies, Alvin Gittins joined the art faculty. Eddington was fortunate to take figure drawing, figure painting and portraiture from him. When Gittins took a sabbatical, Eddington substituted for him.
Since both of us had taken classes from Gittins, we reminisced about his incredible talent and agreed that he was the best portrait painter Utah has ever had.
I told him about the time I wrote an in-depth story about Gittins. As part of my research, I studied his portraits closely, discovering a technique Gittins used. He would skim over the flesh of his portraits lightly with his brush, allowing darker values and colors of the underpainting to show through.
Eddington was fascinated with that observation, saying that although Gittins had disclosed a lot of painting techniques to him, this was not one of them. Eddington chanced upon this technique much as I did.
"After discovering this technique, I searched for the course canvas that Gittins used. But I learned that it was no longer being manufactured."
Eddington still tries to capture that same texture but says, "I have to use much more care when trying to preserve it."
During the final two years of Eddington's graduate work at the University of Utah, he was influential in hiring Arnold Friberg, a former Army buddy, to teach illustration. And Eddington took full advantage of his expertise during the two years Friberg taught at the U.
Eddington admits he "absorbed the best of both worlds - fine art and commercial art" - thanks to Gittins and Friberg.
During his professional career, Eddington moved back and forth between teaching and designing. He was a faculty member in the U.'s department of art for 17 years - nine of which were full time.
For nine years before he retired, he served as professor in the department of design at Brigham Young University.
His professional experience included serving as advertising agency designer/art director for McCann-Erickson in Chicago and MacManus, John and Adams in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; designer for Bert Ray Studio, Chicago; co-owner and art director of Circuit & Eddington Inc., Salt Lake; and his personal design office Keith Eddington & Associates, also of Salt Lake City.
Eddington admitted, "My teaching and design professions tended to eclipse each other."
What's next on the agenda in the life of this portrait painter? He told me in confidence of several upcoming commissions. "Just tell your readers that `there are a lot of things out there in the wings.' "
Ever since Gittins' untimely death in 1981, there has been a void in Utah portrait painting. Over the past 13 years, I have been contacted by a number of people asking me if I could recommend an excellent local portrait painter. I'd hesitate and then suggest a couple of possibilities.
After a penetrating look at portraiture by Keith Eddington, I won't have to hesitate again.