Akhila

 

Hello Friends:

"Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it "the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the mist"" ~Edgar Allan Poe


When I saw Akhila in the studio a few nights ago, I couldn't wait to paint her. The shimmering costume and exotic dark features are what we artists recognize as the basis of an eye-catching portrait. This painting was completed while she sat for us, in a bit more than two hours. When I got the painting home, I decided to lighten the background to bring the focus completely on the model. I tried to do justice to Akhila's quiet smile-- it was as if she had very pleasant or humorous thoughts running through her mind the entire time she was sitting. It was such a pleasure to paint her.

The Visitor

 

Hello Friends:

"To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive". ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Once again, I picked up my palette knife to lay on thick color from the beginning. Once I was happy with my colors and the basic shapes, I used a brush to soften certain edges and to lay in the model's features. This portrait started as a very large painting, encompassing the top half of her torso, but as it came closer to completion, I realized that a smaller painting focusing on her face would be more impactful.

I've been painting on large canvas sheets lately, so when I see how I want the painting to be "finished", I take an exacto knife and slice off the parts that I don't need anymore. I take the remaining canvas and adhere it to a hard board for framing. Such liberty! I'm not forced to comply with a pre-set size anymore! My composition changes as the painting develops.

Firelight

Hello Friends:

This portrait is all about that ravishing hair. What fun it was to load a palette knife with all that fiery color and let it cascade down.