Still learning how to manage my galleries…added some paintings! While I’ve done hundreds of portrait paintings over the last 30 years, I didn’t always take photographs of them. And when I did, they weren’t always good photos! Most of the photos I do have are prints, so I’ll have to get them scanned to add more. I’m newly inspired to do more portraits…but would like to do BIGGER, more fantastic fantasy portraits!

If you saw the TV movie “Bag of Bones” ( from one of my favorite Stephen King books…good adaptation), you’d have seen huge (4 ft square) canvases of just women’s faces in deep dark colors…loved those. I did one fantasy portrait of friends for a wedding present…depicted them as a couple of a torrid romance novel cover…it was fun.

Would like to do portraits of clients as sci-fi heroes, kings and queens, mermaids and faeries, sports heroes…there’s no limit to the genre! Who would you want to be in the best of all worlds?

My favorite portrait painter is John Singer Sargent. I was lucky enough to see an exhibit of his work at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts a couple of years ago. I made the trip back to Massachusetts with my mother to see it…I was awestruck by the size of many of his portraits…some of them were 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide. While the size is admirable, the thing I admire (and wish to emulate) most about his work is his stroke work. With just a few strokes of the brush, he was able to make such realistic hands with long fingers and graceful gestures that brought such theatrics and elegance to the compositions. When you see a photo of a painting of his with, for an example, a wineglass, it looks like the real thing, but up close, it’s a couple of brushstrokes of white, red, and blue. Amazing!

Another favorite artist of mine is Maxfield Parrish. While most of his work was in illustration, this artist was a master of the atmospheric essence of a winter’s sunset or a spring morning. I had the opportunity to do a wall mural for a friend and emulated his grecian urns with soft lavender shadows defining their shape and shadings.

It’s May, and since I can’t be out in a garden weeding and planting, my itch to create needs an outlet. On the spur of the moment, I decide to do a painting of my parents wedding picture. The photo I’m working from is black and white, with a plain church hall background, so the colors and background of the painting are up to me. Since I’m working in acrylic, painting outfit is manadatory…that stuff does not wash out, and I’m a messy painter. I”ll post a picture when it’s done. For mother’s day, my daughter came up with a great idea…she, my mother and myself are going to the ballet in Ithaca…a dance around the story of Ruth. We’re giving all the guys in our family the day off from attending to Mom’s Day duties. Lot’s of love to all my fellow moms out there!