THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508170230
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 37 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
B.J. Egeli is an image maker. To call him only a portrait artist, as the sign outside his studio states, would only be scratching at the surface of the man.
Among the body of work that hangs in his Central Square studio in Nags Head are landscapes and portraits done in a variety of media. He enjoys painting in oils and watercolors and appreciates pastels and pencil renderings.
At the heart of these works is a person who believes that observation is the key to painting.
Egeli prefers to work from life. He observes the essence of his model. Conversation helps draw out personalities. And with brush or chalk in hand, individuality is transferred to canvas or paper.
``It's an analytical process,'' said Egeli, 57. ``Not just analyzing what's visually in front of you, but analyzing what's between the ears.''
If his client prefers, Egeli will work from photographs. But he must take his own - of the subject's profile, three-quarter view and full view.
``It tells me how the structure of the head is put together,'' he said.
You could say Egeli's portraits are living works. He's fluid in the application of his medium, rendered in a realistic fashion, but he is not a slave to realism.
A deeper, tighter style is necessary when painting the head, Egeli said.
``You have to recognize the expression of the human experience in it,'' he said.
Egeli may approach the remaining figure with looser strokes. This style brings vitality to the work.
``I'm not an absolute realist,'' he said. ``Parts beg to be realistic and parts beg to be painterly.''
The artist uses the same integrity of purpose when choosing his medium. You may come into his studio and request your painting to be done in oils, but that may not be the best medium to showcase you.
``Children normally work better in pastels because they have a natural softness to them,'' Egeli said.
Oil works well for portraits of men; the medium for paintings of women depends on the individual.
Egeli is a master of reading his clients.
``You can read very quickly where they fit in in the scheme of things,'' he said.
But he doesn't always paint exactly what he senses. ``It depends on the individual and the type of portrait,'' he said. ``In a board room portrait, you don't mind putting hardness and coldness in there. What a person feels of themselves is more of the image that you want to try to convey. . . . People are the ultimate challenge because they're so complex.''
Egeli has only been on the Outer Banks for four months. He's been busy setting up his studio and dealing with a bad back. A back injury in 1988 has left him battling periodic bouts of severe pain. He must paint sitting down as a result.
Before the injury, Egeli worked in the engineering, construction and architecture field. He was educated at the Maryland Institute, at the Arts Student League in New York and at St. Mary's College. While he's only recently taken up painting full-time again, art has always been a part of his life.
In Egeli's early years, he was home-schooled on the family farm in Maryland by his mother, Lois Baldwin Egeli. By the time he was in second grade, he'd already covered art history from the ancient Minoan period through the Italian Renaissance.
Mrs. Egeli was a graduate of the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Egeli's father, Bjorn Peter Egeli, also a Corcoran alumnus, had a prestigious career as a portrait artist, with many famous clients. The faces of Eisenhower, Nixon, Guggenheim, MacArthur and many more have been immortalized by the senior Egeli.
``I think a lot of it rubbed off on me,'' Egeli said. ``I had art lessons constantly.''
As an instructor himself, Egeli said he does not teach ``art.''
``I can teach anybody to draw and paint,'' he said, ``and it's just a matter of some people learning faster than others. The art, of course, comes out of you.''
The components of good painting are clear to Egeli.
``Know your subject and the technique that you use,'' he said. The art comes last.
``The first and second are learned,'' he said, ``and the last one can only be enhanced.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
B.J. Egeli, right, with onne of his works at his Central Square
studio in Nags Head
by CNB