Winter Self Portrait
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I will not forget my first summer with Henry, in Provincetown, in 1965. I was attending
the Memphis Academy of Art and was impressed with the works of fellow students Howard McKenzie and Charlie Miller (they had been studying with Henry for several summers). I met with Henry and showed him a painting I had just completed. He commented that I needed to forget all I knew and start over doing block studies in sunlight, concentrating on the color, and using a palette knife instead of a brush. I tried this direction for 3 weeks and frustratedly gave up. I could not do it! I attended some of his Friday morning demonstrations that summer and was mesmerized at how he painted – those initial color spots with no preliminary drawing, and then those recognizable forms taking shape as if by magic. That next school year I again saw Howard’s and Charlie’s paintings and decided I had to give it another try. Those next years changed the way I see the visual world. I studied with Henry during the mid 60’s and early 70’s. To afford studying at the Cape School, I did pastel portrait sketches on Commercial St. – I would paint mornings then go to work at noon till 10/11 at night. From 1969-73 I rented a year-round studio apartment from Henry (next door to his winter studio) and remember our casual winter conversations about painting and the human figure throughout those cold months.
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It was a wonderful opportunity to see and absorb the progression of his paintings, the sharing of his knowledge, and his critiquing of my work. Henry introduced me to studying the human head and figure, suggesting I sculpt those structures in clay. I started with the skull, feeling the fitting together of those 3-dimensional forms and seeing them take shape. That hands-on sculpting process helped me visually understand 3-dimensional structure more clearly and how it could be interpreted in my painting through using color variations depicting those planes. The longer I studied with Henry the more I appreciated his direction and dedication to painting and his students. He impressed upon all of us the necessity to understand nature’s light keys and how they affect color by painting outdoor block studies again and again, keeping those overstated color variations separate, and concentrating on the color contrasts. We all benefited from one another and there were always those more advanced sharing openly. Henry’s color concept was stated simply; being able to achieve that concept demanded dedication and hard study. It eventually led to painting nature’s beauty and understanding the visual world more completely. Henry gave me another gift - the feeling of adventure when applying those first overstated color spots of my next painting.
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NOTE: The Henry Hensche Foundation is a non-profit organization for the sole purpose of documenting the life and teachings of Henry Hensche. It endorses no political or religious beliefs and welcomes, although does not necessarily endorse, those students who have long studied the method and approach taught by Henry Hensche and Charles W. Hawthorne.
Students who fit this catagory are encouraged to display their paintings by contacting the Foundation