Portrait Gallery

Some of My Favorite Portraits

Portraits From Photographs

Double Portraits

I get many requests to do portraits of couples. It could be a wedding picture, you and your spouse for an anniversary gift, close friends, a mother and child, or your spouse’s parents. As you can imagine, they make wonderful surprise gifts. Often I work with the client’s photos in this instance, as they are often one-of-a-kind moments. If what you have isn’t perfect (and it is fairly rare that both people look their best in one photograph) you often have the option to use two separate images to make the painted double portrait. I recommend that the photograph with the best expression be used, as I can always change the background, clothes, colors, hairdo, eyeglasses, etc. Care must be taken to match the lighting as best as possible when using different photographs for each person. For example, do not mix outdoor shots with indoor shots, as you will have a very artificial outcome. The viewing angle must also be considered, as you would not want to mix a shot from below with a shot from above: again, a very artificial look will result. With this in mind, there are still many possibilities to mix and match to get the most satisfying double portrait possible.

Family Portraits

Ideally, a family portrait is painted from one shot, or from the same photo shoot. This gives the most consistency of lighting, vantage point and personal relationships. As with double portraits, photographs may be mixed and matched to come up with the best portrayal of each member of the family. Did a family member blink? No problem! Does someone have a bad expression? Easy to fix: use another shot for that person. It is also possible to add someone in who missed the photo shoot. Just find a few shapshots of that person and I can usually paint him or her into the final portrait. Another interesting idea is to have multiple images of the same person at different ages and/or expressions.

Family Landscapes

Imagine a beautiful painting of your kids cavorting in the backyard, giggly and smiling with wind in their hair and the greenery and flowers of spring as a backdrop! Wouldn’t you love to have a painting of your child when he was fishing for the first time with his grandfather? …the lovely photo of your daughter walking among the wildflowers? …that shot of your husband and daughter on the shore or the whole family walking on the beach last summer? Wouldn’t it make a perfect painting! The memories are precious. The possibilities are endless! This is what I refer to as a family landscape: a painting from your special photograph of people in a landscape or seascape, a moment in time, doing what they like to do. It would normally be called a genre painting, but it stars you and your family, with the people much smaller than in a normal portrait but still identifiable. It’s a lovely way to add landscapes or seascapes to your home but with a personal touch. It always tells a story! Let me help you translate your precious photographs into an heirloom family landscape. (Prices vary widely depending on the complexity of the subject and how many people are portrayed.)

Memorial Portraits

A painting of the one you lost can give great comfort to you or a friend who is grieving their loss. It brings the person to life in a way that a photograph cannot. Whether oil or pastel, it is made of pure pigment which ensures that with proper care it will last for generations, usually much longer than photographs.

A challenging and delicate specialty, creating memorial portraits requires the utmost in sensitivity and creative solutions with the least amount of reference material. Great care must be taken to ensure that the true personality shines through in the painting, no matter the quality of the source material. This is not the time to rely on amateurs, friends who mean well, or artists who do not specialize in portraits. You need an artist with extensive experience in painting both from the live model and the photograph, as well as a talent and passion for portraiture. For this reason many artists shy away from the task, but I consider posthumous portraits my specialty.

A True Story

Years ago, when I was participating in an art show, I ran across a businessman who stopped at my booth and gave a careful look at my samples. When I asked him if he was thinking about a portrait, he told me his story.

His brother, with whom he was close, had died a couple of years before. In that time, he had had several artists paint a portrait from the few small, fuzzy photographs available, never with any success. While he still very much wanted a portrait of his brother, he was discouraged and naturally reluctant to spend still more money on something he couldn’t see beforehand.

My solution was simple. I told him, “Let me do a portrait of your brother. I will ask for no money down (waiving the usual 50%) and when you see the finished portrait, if you don’t like it, you will not pay a dime.” My only qualification was that, since the photos were not very good, that I would be able to carry the portrait only so far, and then I would need his feedback to adjust it to the right likeness. When I showed him the portrait back in my studio, as I anticipated, he needed me to adjust a few features to find the exact likeness which the photos alone couldn’t show. I adjusted the picture for a few minutes after each suggestion while he watched, and then he stepped back, and declared softly, “That’s my brother!” and suddenly walked out of the room to compose himself. When he came back he happily paid my price and had me do several other portraits for him and recommended me to many friends.

Customizing

Often there is no one picture that will translate perfectly into a painted portrait. An artist needs to add, subtract or emphasize certain aspects of a photograph to produce a great painting. What I am looking for most of all is a photograph that captures the spirit and best facial expression of the person. It doesn’t matter even if they’re in their bathrobes in the kitchen: everything, other than the turn of the head, can be changed or eliminated to accommodate your memory of the one who has passed away, including the hair style or color, clothing, eyeglasses, hats, backgrounds and other people in the photograph. Other reference photos are appreciated to make the changes accurate. People can be shown in uniform, for example, when the photo is in civilian clothes.

Multiple Images Option

If your loved one had a number of striking expressions, looks or fields of interest, you may want to consider a multiple image, – or montage – portrait. This is also perfect for representing a number of stages (ages) in life. This may consist of two or three more portrayals of the subject, usually with varying sizes of heads, or with hands included on one image, or even one of a full body pose. A vignette – softly fading crop – of the image is preferred to help the images fit well on the canvas.

You may also elect to have yourself painted with your loved one, or any other person(s) put together. I can recommend a composition for you and help you to sift through the choices of source photographs so thtat the final painting is an artistic and accurate success. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me to discuss your particular wishes.

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