Saturday, March 20, 2010

November Blossoms in Spring

Medium: Watercolors
Size 10x7 inches

It has definitely started to feel like springtime here lately. Plum and cherry trees in full bloom -- a profusion of pink and white petals snowing down past my windows with each gust of wind. I've had my office door open every day so that I can breathe the fresh air. It feels good after the closed windows through the rainy winter.

I finally got around to painting a picture of Claire, and though those flowers may look very "Spring", they were inspired by a photograph my mother-in-law Alice took on the day that Claire was born, back in November in her garden in New York.

It's been a long time since I have attempted a painting of a likeness, from a photograph. Whenever I use references for the most part it is just to determine how a tricky bit of anatomy works, or figuring out how the shading would fall, or creatures/plants that I'm not familiar enough with to draw the details of from memory. I rarely use a reference to paint exactly, so this was a bit of a challenge as well as being something fun.


5 comments:

  1. I am absolutely blown away. Now, this is amazing.I was just asking you when you would be doing a painting of your precious little miracle the other day and WOW! Here she is. When did you do this, just today? I have got to get my act together and keep pace with you my friend. You are such an inspiration and a great friend.

    This painting is something special.

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  2. John Shannon said when he saw the sketch, "that looks like a James browne!"

    it took a couple of days!

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  3. What a lovely picture! And I laughed, too, because I did the exact same thing, painted a picture of my own child (with dragon) at about the same age. :)

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  4. Aww! What a sweet and lovely portrait :)

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