What a treat and honor it was to paint this portrait! This gentleman is an incredibly talented architect here in Charlotte. I was lucky enough to paint both his daughters, and much to his wife’s surprise, he decided he wanted his portrait done. There is no vanity involved here. I think he’s just fascinated with portraiture. He was gracious enough to also take the time to sit for me so that I could do color studies from life. I’ve become so spoiled that I really resist painting from a photograph. I am fascinated by the colors and subtleties of life!!!
Here’s the color study that I did from life. Thanks to Chris Saper — one of the many things I learned from her was to keep swatches of the colors I use for various flesh tones on my study. So that’s what those colors on the side of the study are.
I learned another lesson during this process. I decided to paint on an oversized canvas, so that I could crop later. So many times when I’ve completed a painting, I wish that I could move something over a little. So I decided to make sure I was happy with the final cropping. Once I removed it from the stretchers though, it was another story!!! Restretching a painted piece of linen is not easy! I finally ended up taking it to a local framer and they did a beautiful job of restretching it.
Can you tell I love painting people??? Grateful!!!