When people see the paintings in my Family Album Series, they often say "I have a family photo just like that." That's how I got my first commission. Nancy MacCallum asked me if I would do a painting for her from a favorite photo she had. Of course I said YES and when I saw the photo-what a treat. The colors and patterns were terrific and subject matter even more appealing to me-sisters! Here is the photo she gave me to paint. Nancy is the prim and proper one on the far left.
Some people ask me if I blow up the photo I'm going to paint and simply paint on top of the picture. Actually, I reproduce the photo by eye onto a primed artist board. This means the painting is not an exact replication of the photo, and with a palette knife, it's impossible to get a true likeness. I simply aim to get an impression of the moment. With that said, here are the "Sisters" in palette knife.
This was such fun to paint and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I'm pretty sure she is too : )
1 comment:
You did such a fantastic job on this!!
I can really relate to doing things 'by eye' and not by tracing (which, honestly, I've always thought of as 'cheating', anyway). First off, tracing removes a large chunk of the fun and the artist's challenge!! (...and what fun is THAT??)
An artists' representation should be embraced as just that - an artists' representation - and not judged against the original photo. It can be compared and contrasted to it, but NOT judged. That is not why someone commissions a original PAINTING in the first place! Ok, off my soap box now... :) :) (Basically, what I'm getting at is that I understand that issue all too well!! ;) )
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