One of the hardest and easiest faces to paint is your own. If you’re surrounded by relatives, you are familiar with most of your features; you might have the same nose shape as your son, eyebrows like your father, chin like your sister, mouth like your grandmother. But it’s also infinitely difficult because every color and line you put in defines YOU. Your age, your health, your lack of time in the sun. You coldly observe your hair is out of place, you vainly try to make it look a little nicer than it is. The constant play of making it look nice vs cold observation is much harder when the face you are painting is your own. I was recently challenged to do a self portrait, and my dear husband posed me and snapped a photo as a guide for this painting. So here it is. Does an artist’s self portrait show the talent of said artist, or does it show what they wish they looked like?

One of the most exciting part of my new life as an artist is that people want me to paint their faces. This lovely lady asked me to do just that. I was able to capture her graceful countenance and produce a family heirloom for her as well.

The show went well! I sold two prints and one painting, the painting to a dear friend.
One of the prints went to a visionary woman whose name I did not get. I really regret that I didn’t get her name. If you are reading this, please contact me!

This is a 1/4 sheet watercolor painting from a 1925 photograph of an office party. The room is filled with young women and mostly older men, and all of the women were together, except this one, she was over to the side, not next to any of them. Her hair was not bobbed and styled like everyone else’s, and she looked like she had something on her mind.  I was very taken with her and this is actually the 5th time I’ve tried painting her; I am finally happy with her.