Sarah Belchetz-Swenson’s artistry feted at Massachusetts State House
By Judy Polan

WILLIAMSBURG - Williamsburg painter and printmaker Sarah Belchetz-Swenson has achieved a number of meaningful artistic milestones in the past several months, the most recent of which was the formal unveiling of her portrait of former Governor Jane Swift, held at the State House in Boston on Oct. 24. The artist is in fact the first woman painter ever commissioned by the state of Massachusetts to render an original gubernatorial portrait.
Belchetz-Swenson’s completed painting of former Governor Jane Swift was first revealed to the public at an Oct. 22 ceremony at the North Adams Public Library, at which Swift, a resident of Williamstown, gave her official papers to the library for their archival collection.
The formal unveiling of the portrait was held two days later at the state capital. In attendance at the State House ceremony were Swift, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Governor Paul Cellucci, Senate President Robert E. Travaglini (D-East Boston), dozens of state officials, and - of course - the artist herself.
"It was an honor to be chosen to paint the first female governor of Massachusetts,” Belchetz-Swenson said in an e-mail, “and I enjoyed working with Jane Swift. I hope that in portraying her as an intelligent, capable chief executive, I help to inspire other women to follow in her footsteps."
At the Boston ceremony, Swift reflected on her youth in North Adams, her pride in the Berkshires, and her 22 months as governor. 
The 50-inch by 40-inch painting (the largest allowable size for a gubernatorial portrait under the state Arts Commission’s guidelines) depicts Swift in a black suit, standing with a smile, a single strand of pearls around her neck and papers tucked under her arm. Her portrait will hang in a receiving chamber of the governor's office, alongside those of other Massachusetts governors.
Jill Ker Conway - author, historian, former president of Smith College, and herself a subject of one of the artist’s portraits - has said that Sarah Belchetz-Swenson’s portraits “convey great psychological authenticity. They convey the mood and the substance of the person, and for this reason, convey the inheritance of institution, or family, from the past."
Belchetz-Swenson is well known for her portraiture, and has done commissions for Columbia University , the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, The Huntington Library (Aphra Behn 1640- 1689), Oberlin College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Dartmouth College, and for many private collections.
Her work has been shown in solo exhibits at the Jewish Museum in New York, at the Union House of Living Judaism in New York, in a group exhibit of Jewish Women in the Arts at the Jewish community center in Rockville, Md., and at many other galleries, museums, and colleges across the United States. She has lectured widely and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In addition to teaching at Smith College in Northampton, she has served as a visiting critic at the Vermont Studio School, and as artist in residence at Marlboro College. 
Belchetz-Swenson said that “painting has always been my way of approaching the surrounding physical and spiritual world. From childhood on, my goal has been to capture in pictures everything I wish to keep. Whether I am working on a landscape or a still-life or a portrait, on canvas or on paper, I strive to record the visual and emotional immediacy of the scene.”
She explains that “the process of painting a portrait is a complex one. I begin my work by doing research before I even meet my subject. I read background material such as resumes, articles and other publications by and about the individual, and I look at photographs when available.”
Once she has digested all of this information, she chooses the specific pose and other elements of the composition, and begins to plan the painting. With the composition in mind, she arranges a two- to three- hour photo shoot with her subject. 
“After I have taken the photographs, I schedule a final two- to three-hour sitting with my subject during which I paint a small oil sketch of the head from life. With the completion of the oil sketch my preparatory work is done, and I return home and paint the portrait. Assuming all has goes as planned, the entire process ordinarily takes five to six months from beginning to end.”
Painting Swift’s portrait felt like an especially good fit for the artist, as she has a special interest in professional women as subjects. Also, Belchetz-Swenson noted, “the chemistry between us was right. Painting a portrait of someone goes two ways.”

Judy Polan is an award-winning feature story writer and chanteuse, design writer for Style 1900 magazine, and occasional humor essayist on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio's “Roundtable” and “Midday Magazine” shows. She welcomes e-mail via her Web site, www.judypolan.com.
© Judy Polan 2005