Lorea's Mom

Another commission painting, this is one of the few portraits I have done. The actual photograph has been placed as an inset under the glass near the bottom of the mat, this was the idea of the Framer (Dini from Artisan's Alley in London Ontario where I used to show some artwork). Painting a portrait is very difficult, but painting a portrait of somebody's mother is even more difficult. To the artist, the person is a complete stranger, but to the family this face is familiar for a lifetime. A small mistake that I will not notice can become very obvious to the family! Happily, this portrait was very much appreciated by my friend and colleague Lorea (although I have not heard how her mother feels about it!).

For me the hardest part was establishing the drawing. I made detailed measurements on the photo to locate the position of the eyes, nose and mouth, and then transferred the positions onto the larger paper. I sketched in the face with light pencil, and once the face looked right I painted the skin tones and hair etc. The drawing took about 3 weeks to get right, the actual painting was done in a mtter of hours. Without formal training in portrait work the whole process was nerve-racking. I hope to do more portrait work one day and implement faces into my abstract work.

Lorea's Mom, watercolour 10 x 14" cold press, 2000 (No. 1899)