8 x 10" paintings - portraits

Saturday 11th July 2009 - Rosa

Rosa is the daughter of a friend, rapidly turning into a young woman.

Rosa - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas - SOLD

Wednesday 18th February 2009 - Marisol

What a shock to walk into the studio on Wednesday and see Marisol, who used to have dread-locked hair almost to her waist with a short crop. I partly chose this angle for the novelty of seeing the back of her neck!

Marisol - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas - $750

Saturday 7th February 2009 - Portrait Group - Cat

Cat is a friend of Sarkis, a fellow portrait group regular and I had no idea what she looked like before I turned up at the group - I quite often have an idea or an approach in mind. We set her up next to the window for natural light and hung a bright turquoise mexican blanket behind her as a backdrop.



There is something a little different about this one, it's a little cartoon-like, I enjoyed painting the big hair and the earrings and scarf. I felt the warm glow of the kin works against the strong background colour.

Gipsy - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - $750

Saturday 10th January 2009 - Ruschan

This Saturday at the portrait we had this very handsome man from Sri Lanka to model for us. He posed quite a challenge for skin tones, quite out of the ordinary here in Taos!

Ruschan - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - $750

Tuesday 23rd December 2008 - Tara and David

I spent Xmas day with my good friends Tara and David and gave them this portrait as a Christmas present. I worked from several photos of them that I had, particularly one I took of them out on Hallowe'en wearing their Renaissance Fair gear. They loved the picture and hung it straightaway in a place of honour.

Tara and David - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - not for sale

Saturday 9th August 2008 - Isobel

We've been painting in the Fechin Garden on Saturdays for a few weeks now and it's so nice and cool in the shade of the trees. As usual the light changed many times during the course of the painting session. Isobel was a great model.

Isobel - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas-board - sold

Thursday 7th August 2008 - Ray's Class

I was all ready to work on my big painting of Maroon Bells only to find that Ray had booked a model and we were having a session on portraiture. He gave us lots of tips on the process of portraiture including interacting with your subject and told us stories of the many portrait commissions he's done over the years.



Mary Beth - 12 x 12" - oil on gesso-board - $575

Wednesday 16th July 2008 - Orlando

The last week of this pose. I picked quite the challenging angle to paint him from!



Orlando - 16 x 20" - oil on canvas - $1,175

Art in Action!

My friend Pamela sent me this photo yesterday.



I had painted Eden last summer in the portrait group on a Saturday. We were painting outside in the Fechin garden and I felt that the painting came out rather well. Pamela saw the painting at my house and since she is good friends with Eden and her mother Laura, she bought the painting and held onto it for quite a while to give it to her at her graduation just a couple of weeks ago. looks like it gave her quite a surprise!

It is lovely to have my paintings go off into their new lives, to be enjoyed and treasured.

Friday 18th January 2008 - The Horseman

A second session on Brian, the horseman. I started this one last Saturday at the regular portrait group and got most of it down, the composition, a good start and the face - I don't like painting faces from photographs, they always look frozen to me.
It's nice to have indoor projects while the weather is this cold. Once your paints and your fingers freeze it's time to pack up. I worked on the saddle and the clothing etc. from photographs I took on Saturday. I'm particularly pleased with the saddle bag against the Navajo blanket, I think it looks quite effective.

The Horseman - 30 x 22" - oil on canvas - $1,750