Wish Granted?
Whether Weischer would have an opportunity to see Hockney at work anywhere along the way remained an open question. But, figuratively speaking, he had already been looking over Hockney’s shoulder for years. Long before the two ever met, Weischer was studying Hockney's canvases, converting Hockney’s motifs for his own, quite different, purposes.
Globetrotting
Like a genie with a young prince to look after, Hockney started plotting magic-carpet rides of visual discovery. First, in the summer, they took two whirlwind days in Paris to view Chinese scrolls, Miró, the Musée Picasso, and the Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre, ever on the alert for unexpected correspondences. And the following spring, Weischer spent two weeks as Hockney’s guest at his storybook oasis in the Hollywood Hills, joining his host on excursions to the fabled collections of southern California’s public and private art museums and the opening of Hand Eye Heart, Hockney’s show of his new watercolours from Yorkshire.
At Last
Yet in the end, it was in the studio, in silence, that Hockney left his deepest mark, by inviting Weischer to sit (or rather stand) for a full-length portrait. Here at last, in 20-minute sessions, several times a day, several days running, was the chance Weischer had been waiting for. But wait! Is the sitter not in precisely the wrong spot to see the artist’s hand at work?
Hockney had anticipated this objection by setting up a mirror, allowing Weischer to follow his entire process. “He worked straight from the object,” said Weischer, choosing the terminology natural to an artist. “For the first half-hour or so, he sketched an outline – just a few strokes, but they have to be right. Then he chose single colours for the larger areas: blue for my jeans, grey for the sweatshirt, skin tone for the face and hands. Again, the beginning is something simple: flat colors. But they have to be right. Only then does he get to work on details. You could really sense the concentration”.
A Revelation
For the young painter of bare interiors, the experience was a revelation. “My fingers were itching,” Weischer says. “I’m feeling a great urge right now to try my hand at a portrait.” Stand by for a breakthrough.
Extracted from a chapter, written by Matthew Gurewitsch for Unique Voices, Common Visions, a record of the 2004/2005 cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.