Some people like to make lace, some people like to wear lace, I thought it would be fun to paint it. On shorpy.com, I came upon this wonderful black and white photo of a young representative and his wife and little girl. The little girl, Olive Sherley, lived to be 98 years old.  This was…

I came upon a very old photograph of an office Christmas party. Everyone seemed to be stylish, happy, elbow to elbow, except for this one young lady. She sat far to the right of everyone else in the picture, and looked away from them all. Her hair was mussed, she just didn’t look like she…

The April challenge was to copy someone else’s painting. I chose this one by Alexei Alexeivich Harlamoff (1848-1915) which he called “Portrait of a Peasant Girl” The original painting is oil on canvas, here’s a picture of it;  art renewal.org. This was just for fun, she turned out looking very sweet and fresh.

This is a commissioned piece, used as a surprise wedding gift.  They were thrilled. 

Once in a while you get a commission that really seems impossible.  A friend asks for you to paint a portrait from an old b & w photo, combine it with another photo, and use the style from a Dutch 18th century master. To be honest, I was terrified.  I was going into completely unknown…