November Artist of the Month – Meet Sonia Hale

I grew up in the Boston area and have always loved the change of seasons and stunning beauty of New England. After attending Colby College in Waterville, Maine, which was absolutely glorious this time of year, before it turned into in my words “Coldby” for a very long winter, I returned to Boston. While I have been fortunate to visit some wonderful places around the world, I’m always happy to return home. 

When I was young, I was always drawing and inking sketches (pen and ink drawings). I believe I got my artistic eye from my mother, who has always been highly discriminating in decorating and all visual projects. She had abandoned a set of oil paints in the attic. I still need to ask her about this…anyway I saw them and was confident that they were something I’d be very interested in. I remember when she bought me my first watercolor set, how estatically happy I was. We had an artist family friend and he stressed to me that I should learn to draw prior to painting and so I set my mind on that first. My napping cats were my favorite subjects to start. 

My mom was always so supportive and signed me up for drawing and painting classes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, when I was about twelve. Those were days of far less security and I remember walking through corridors with all kinds of intriguing statues lining the walls on my way to the basement classroom with one long window facing the atrium. It was such a joy to be with like-minded students and to work in a group. One teacher told me I painted like Matisse, but I wanted to learn to draw and paint more realistically than that. That led me later in my late teens/early 20’s to the Carpenter Center at Harvard University with some Advanced Figure Drawing classes that included anatomy and life drawing. I always took my studies very seriously and never considered it to be a hobby.

In college I double-majored in English and Art. Again, I can’t tell you how I felt at HOME in the Bixler Art Center at Colby College on Sunday mornings. Everyone else would be hung over (and occasionally I fell into that group) but by senior year, I was painting in the mornings on Sundays. 

Much later, after years spent in the field of graphic design/ art direction, I felt myself pulled back by the fine art supplies at the store. I took workshops with renowned artists and studied with the very best out there nationally. Once I saw Everett Raymond Kinstler’s (who painted many U.S. Presidents, cabinet members and luminaries) portraits, I was hooked on portraiture and studying with him. I took workshops with him in Boston and NYC at the Art Student’s League of New York. He mentored me for five years. He told me he would teach me “the language of art” and that I could do with it what I wanted. Looking back, I have to laugh that It felt like a very natural and normal thing to be mailing and later emailing photos of my work to Ray (who was an extremely busy man) and checking the mailbox every day for a reply as to what he thought of my latest portrait paintings, some commissions. I was obsessed. He was a fellow kindred artist and I used to send him all kinds of gifts to try to let him know how much I appreciated his time. He was a second generation painter of John Singer Sargent and also closely aligned with Joaquin Sorolla in his love of capturing light. I am therefore a third generation student of John Singer Sargent. I’d do all kinds of research and send him the newest books on his favorite artists and special brushes. I could never repay what he did for me. He told me I had a “sympathetic” style of painting portraits, which I thought was interesting at the time. I do truly try to bring out the very best in my portrait subjects, so I did appreciate that he said that. He also wrote at one point, “you have a charm and lovely quality in painting children.” I started off painting mostly children’s portraits.

I was trained to be a consummate artist. Once I had learned the Language of Art I was to work on various genres and not just focus on portraits. As John Singer Sargent said, you don’t want to be a mannerist and just paint portraits– that is too limiting as an artist and you will not grow in your work. Ray Kinstler always encouraged us to paint outdoors as much as possible. My seascapes are an important part of my work as an artist. One recent fun sale went to Showtime for their TV show, “Three Women,” which is set to premiere this fall. I’m intrigued see how my painting of the Martha’s Vineyard Lighthouse of Gay Head at Aquinnah Cliffs was displayed. I do love to paint seascapes and paint as many as I can around my portrait work.

Some of my favorite artists have been Everett Raymond Kinstler, of course, and another was Connie Flavell Pratt who taught me pastel portrait painting on the Cape. She would demonstrate on Monday am and then we had the afternoon to try to get somewhere near her level. There was a new model each day for the rest of the week, all day each day. I made so much progress in that class. Her artist sister, Jane, would join us and she was a delight. She would joke around about how Connie was the doer and she was the talker, but she was very skilled as well and painted a lot of courtroom portraits and some children’s portraits. Again, we all felt so at home together and bonded together like a family by the end of the week. Connie would make her rounds and was one of the most helpful and honest teachers I ever had at the easel. She was respectful, but really taught. I went back each summer to learn from her and when she saw the Girault pastel set of 300 pastels I bought myself for my 40th birthday gift, she laughed and said, “Ok, you are going to have to be very good,” and gave me a couple extra tips. Sadly, Ray Kinstler, Connie Pratt and Jane are no longer with us. How I would love to paint with them again!

I love the peace I find when I am creating art. I listen to music or books on tape and when I’m in my “painting zone,” I am in my most creative, intuitive state. It is my happy place. Of course, there are days of agitation when I am working back and forth on paintings, trying to draw out what I need from them, but about half of the time, I am working with intuition and innate creativity. I prefer to paint portraits over other subjects, as I sometimes feel lonely painting other subjects. I don’t feel alone painting portraits—kind of silly, like listening to ocean waves while trying to sleep. Our minds play tricks on us, but who’s complaining.

I feel fortunate to work with all kinds of clients. Each client brings unique projects to me and I work hard to meet their expectations. From the highest-end clients such as the Harvard Club of Boston for whom I painted the first female president to the recently widowed who want a posthumous portrait of their spouse to young parents who want oil paintings of their young children, it’s my job to get paintings completed on time and to be sure they are elated with the result. I also have really enjoyed working on pet portraits in more recent years. The pure joy of pet owners and their happy little friends keeps a smile on my face much of the time. I feel so blessed to be able to work in a field that matches my personality and abilities. Each day is unique and it’s a privilege to work on portraits that will hang in my client’s homes for decades and that will be family heirlooms. 

Some portraits I’m working on include several head and shoulders of businessmen, a portrait of a mother, several children’s portraits and an unusual request for a religious painting. Several dog portraits are imminent, as well, from a wonderful interior designer in the South.