Seth Haverkamp: Magical Portraits
This past April, artist Seth Haverkamp was awarded the Draper Grand Prize for his painting, Mars Rising, at the 21st annual The Art of the Portrait Conference in Atlanta. The award-winning work is an intimate portrait of his son, Caspian, standing confidently within a fantastical setting. It was an emotional night for many to watch Seth, a frequent competition finalist and conference faculty member, take the stage to accept his award. The Tennessee-based artist has established himself as a leader in the figurative art world and is best known for his enigmatic and imaginative portraits of his wife and children.
Like many artists, Seth knew from a young age that art was his life’s calling and he briefly considered a career as an illustrator, with a special interest in fantasy books. That early interest is certainly evident in his paintings today, which are often described as whimsical, mysterious and even magical. After beginning his studies at the Memphis College of Art and the Cleveland University of Art, Seth graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Carson-Newman College in 2003. Then in the summer of 2004, Seth attended a workshop at Studio Incamminati with acclaimed artist Nelson Shanks, later enrolling in their intensive art program. Seth recalls, “I had a very instructive year up at Studio Incamminati in 2006. They gave me a process I really responded to and embraced.” And his wife, Catherine, also an artist who he met his first week at Cleveland University of Art, has decided to continue her education there as well.
Mars Rising is a brilliant work that displays Seth’s signature style of juxtaposing values, Klimt-inspired backgrounds and captivating narratives. Every detail of the work is thoughtfully rendered—his son’s shoulder length hair, his face and chest marked with strokes of paint, the full-length mirror reflecting his shirtless back, and the delicate string of paper cranes in his hand. “The original concept of the piece started out as just wanting to do a life-size portrait, but as I began placing extra elements into the painting, it morphed into playing with the underlying theme of peace and how that concept seems impossible to realize,” Seth says. “This painting is more than a likeness; it’s a reflection on the world we live in today. The symbolism of peace carries through, but it’s fragile, just as Mars’ façade was as the Roman god of war.” Standing casual yet confident, the boy stares forward, face painted as if prepared for battle, locking eyes with his viewers and confronting them with his delicately crafted symbol for peace.
Birds and paper cranes are a common theme in Seth’s portraits, as seen in an earlier work, titled Essie’s Cranes. In this painting, his daughter Essie is shown holding a single string of three cranes in varying shades of blue. Her gesture is dynamic, with her left-hand raised toward her face and her right-hand hovering palm side up beneath the cranes, almost as if she has the power to set the birds free from their string. In another work, The Big Dipper, Seth portrays his daughter Penelope clutching a flower in one hand, while a small bird prepares to land on her outstretched fingers. The moment captured here is charged with anticipation as the bird is forever caught in flight, powerless to reach his tender perch.
His abstracted, otherworldly backgrounds have also become a signature of his work and add to the timeless quality of his paintings. On this process, Seth has said he will typically
apply about six layers of background colors, allowing a day to dry in between layers. On composing memorable compositions, Seth explains, “I don’t want my images to look like a snapshot, to be perfectly staged—the hair and the clothes. I like to sculpt the form with paint, to use fun props, place some emphasis on the hands and convey an idea or make a statement.”
Celestial motifs are repeated in Seth’s paintings, as he frequently portrays his daughter wearing a wondrous blue dress covered in stars, clouds and the moon. The dress appears in The Big Dipper, Sitting on the Moon and a work from this year titled Reflection of Self. Speaking about the concept of Sitting on the Moon, which earned him a spot as a finalist in the 2018 competition, Seth explains, “My goal was to create a painting that walked the line between overly cute and overly dramatic. The original intention was for her to be holding a string with an object dangling from her hand. During the process of creating the composition, I had her drop the object where she proceeded to do a somewhat strange hand gesture. I thought this made for a more compelling image where the hand, in essence, became the prop.” As Seth points out, without a prop the focus is directed to her hand gesture, as well as her dress, which features a small blonde-headed figure, ensconced in her heavenly realm and sitting on the moon.
It is important, I think, to point out that Seth does not paint his children “at play” but rather engaging with playful objects or in settings and clothing suggestive of play. For instance, in Mars Rising, Caspian’s painted chest and face are indicative of a child playing dress up, however, his earnest gaze is anything but playful. The paper cranes that Caspian and Essie hold are clearly not being played with, but instead are objects that signify youth and its innocence, which are thoughtfully inserted into Seth’s compositions. The distinction between children at play and children enveloped in a world evocative of play is important
because it separates his work from mundane sentimentality and raises it to a level of intelligent, contemporary design.
On the heels of his big win, Seth has been busy at work in his studio and conducting workshops around the country. In May, Seth was awarded First Place at Studio Incamminati’s first-ever Portrait Painting Competition. Currently, Seth is represented by Rutledge Street Gallery in Camden, South Carolina, and Haynes Galleries in Franklin, Tennessee, where his latest solo exhibition, Magical Portraits, features works including
The Big Dipper and Reflection of Self. Seth will also be returning as faculty for the 2020 The Art of the Portrait Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Krystle Stricklin, guest writer for the Portrait Society of America, is a PHD candidate in the history of art at the University of Pittsburgh. She specializes in American art, photography, and the visual legacies of war and empire. Krystle received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the history of art from Florida State University.