Palette knife portrait surprise

Girl with the Green Earring

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

10" x 8" x 1.5"

Click on the image to enlarge
NFS

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

This portrait was done as a surprise thank you for Karin Jurick, the artist who organizes the Different Strokes from Different Folks blog challenges. You may remember that Karin's end of the year challenge was a portrait swap. Out of the 180 participants, there were 4 artists who weren't able to come through. So at the last minute, Karin painted those missing 4 portraits so that those artists wouldn't be left out. Jill Polsby was one of those artists. So she organized this project as a thank you by contacting as many artists as she could to paint their own portrait of Karin. Then she created a book of all of the paintings. Take a look at all of the wonderful portraits here.

I don't know why, but I never had an interest in painting portraits. It's probably the pressure of getting the likeness just right. But I've discovered that I really enjoy painting portraits with my palette knife. I feel as if I am carving out the structure of the face with my knife. I thank Karin for introducing me to subjects I would not choose to paint myself. It has really pushed me as an artist.