SOCIAL CLIMES : Passion for Portraits

Interiors

To have dined at Atlas Bar & Grill or reclined at Club Lux is to have experienced a Ron Meyers interior. Sensual, richly romantic, the Ron Meyers signature can be seen in the Olympian, gold-leafed grand decor of Atlas and the civilized sci-fi design of the club, which Meyers describes as looking like “a men’s club on Mars.” His latest project is Tryst, a restaurant occupying the space of the late Greek Connection on La Cienega. It will combine Meyers’ sensibilities with works done by other artists.

But that is Meyers’ public life. In his Los Angeles home, which combines such items as leopard-patterned chairs, an overstuffed sofa and antique art glass, the 45-year-old Meyers talks with Times society writer Jeannine Stein about a more private passion: portrait painting. This is one in an occasional series on the behind-the-scenes lives of high-profile people.

I paint in spurts. It just hits me, and I never know when it’s going to happen. I was trained as a painter at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. But somewhere along the way I decided not to do it for a living. I’ve done lots of other things. For a while I did the whole suffering thing and was a very arty painter and was actually doing quite well. I didn’t leave it for lack of success, but I didn’t like the industry.

I’ve always done a lot of faces, but they weren’t necessarily portraits. I’ve always used people, close-ups of people. And I like the feeling of painting on wood as opposed to canvas. Even before I realized I liked painting on wood I was always attracted to 13th-, 14th- and 15th-Century paintings that were on wood.

There’s something about putting a brush onto that hard surface. Even on a well-stretched canvas there’s a give. The wood is so firm, so direct, and the grain is different.

For me painting is very erotic. One painting in particular (of an imaginary subject) I did one winter when I was living in San Francisco. I was so high from that painting. I’d sit up till 4 or 5 in the morning. I would paint for five minutes and then sit back for half an hour and stare at it. As I was painting him, I was really getting lost in him, and the more I got lost the more I could pull him out. He was as real as any other person.

And as time went on he would emerge more and more. In fact, he’s much stronger now that he once was. He was younger and sweeter when I first started. And as our relationship became more sophisticated, he became more sophisticated, a little older. And more powerful.

When I paint someone I know, I paint from memory and photographs. I don’t like painting from sittings because very often I’ll paint for 20 minutes at 4 in the morning and then leave it.

Another portrait I did was of a woman I’ve known for years and years. She’s an incredible woman and a very beautiful woman and I’d always wanted to paint her. I’d spent about six weeks in New York staying with her and I took hundreds of Polaroids while I was there. I meant to capture a very beautiful moment, and in fact I captured a very anguished moment. That was pretty amazing. It was as if I didn’t have any control over anything I was doing.

Every one is different. I did a painting of (restaurateur) Mario Tamayo for his birthday a few years ago which was very studied and very polished because Mario himself is very studied. But I never do portraits in response to someone asking me. I do them when I want to. By not being a painter for a living it’s allowed me to be incredibly selfish, and yet it’s given me the freedom to be very generous, as in doing Mario’s portrait for his birthday. We had just finished doing the Atlas Bar and Grill (Tamayo’s restaurant) and I wanted to do something very special. It wasn’t just about giving him the gift. I wanted to give him something very special.

Painting (imaginary) people is the thing that really turns me on the most, making somebody so real that I’m physically reacting to it. I love the eroticism, and I don’t get that as much if I’m painting portraits of people I know. Even if we’ve had erotic experiences, that’s not what the painting’s about. I love the sexuality that comes out when I’m painting a stranger, and making the stranger no longer a stranger.

I can happily get lost in the process of painting, especially with oils. I like to paint long and slow and really get to know every inch of the face and really understand everything that’s going on with the bones and the skin and the sense of the face moving. I live with them now and I sort of have my own world with them. It all depends on my mood when I come home. If I’m in a foul mood they’re all sneering at me.

I think there will probably be a time in my life when I’ll paint more. I know that I have great fantasies about spending part of the year in Italy painting. I love Italy and I feel very creative when I’m there. But I’m very neurotic about doing it for a living because to this day I really don’t like the art world. I don’t think it’s based on how good somebody is.

But I’m pretty much satisfied with the balance in my life. A little bit more money wouldn’t hurt, so I could do things like go and live in Italy and paint. I don’t need big houses and Rolls-Royces. When I’m working I feel very satisfied with what I’m doing. Interior design is not a lesser medium.