Andrea, This is image nine.  I may sign the painting in a few days and get another photo.  If I do, I’ll upload one more.  We think about you a lot and remember all the fun we had when you visited with your mom.  We miss you.  Tell you aunt and uncle and cousins about this web site.  Hope to see you again soon.  Much love and hugs, Diana

Notice that each time I photograph the painting the color looks a little different.  That is only because the lighting in the room is different depending on the lights I use or where I do the photo or also if the sunshine is bright or cloudy.

Thank you to the many of you in so many countries for having an interest in my work. I hope you have a personal interest enough to appreciate the complications in every person’s life which interfere with our progress. I will just tell you that many things right now are preventing me from making the advances with my work that I would like. I believe I will not be able to have my new project ready for a very important fall show. It would have needed to be ready for the application which is due very soon. My own medical concerns and also my aged relative have kept my schedule too full.
Hopefully I will post the last two or three images of Andrea this evening or tomorrow. Have patience with me as things are very challenging at the moment. I consider myself to be very blessed but at the same time, life gets in the way of our plans sometimes. To you all, Shalom. Diana

Now the spirit of the sweet girl is beginning to shine through, even though I still have some adjusting to do on the features.  Her features are soft and beautiful so I must adjust the skin tones and eyes to reflect this.  When people ask me how I achieve a good likeness, this is my answer:  The mouth shows the expression and the eyes reveal the spirit.  Dear Andrea will soon be out of her teen years.  I’m sure her maturity will reflect some changes since I met her.  Andrea,  I hope you can still appreciate and enjoy this memory we have of you.  I have two more images to show you.  I have not yet signed the portrait.  I will probably post the last image and then sign it.  Hugs and love, Diana

At this point I am refining the skin tones to achieve the correct light and also to balance everything with the clothing colors.  I am still trying to maintain the chiaroscuro of the classic portrait.  As an update for those of you who might have missed it: this person is the daughter of our beloved AFS daughter who lived with us almost a year during our oldest daughter’s senior year in high school.  We have only met Andrea one time, during the New Year celebration more than two years ago when she and her mother spent a week with us.  I can still see her waving to us from the secure airport area as she and her mother were going through security, knowing only so surely that our next meeting was known only to God.  Andrea, if you are seeing this, please let me know by using the contact area on this site to message me.

This is Thursday the tenth of April already. My uncle is closer to the one hundred mark and gaining strength. We took him for a doctor appointment this morning and may have to return this afternoon. We’ve worked in the yard a lot so that takes time but the spring clean up is necessary if all the flowers are going to look good and do well. I love to see the bulbs bloom. I have two orchids in bloom right now too. I am in the process of preparing the very large sketch for my next major painting. I know there is a deadline if I’m going to enter it in the show this fall. I don’t see how I’ll get it done because of all the other things that have occupied my time. I just have to decide what is most important. I can hopefully still paint next year. Right now, there is no one else to help my uncle. I do get a little out of the ‘zone’ when I cannot work regularly. Bruce and I made a trip to Washington, PA to pick up giclees on Monday. That took the whole day. I had Plimoth wife photographed and also The Mountain Stream Heals All. Plimoth Wife is probably my best portrait and I hope someday to sell her so I wanted to have the ability to have the prints. I’m glad she is home again. It will be time to go to my maintenance therapy soon, so I’ll sign off. Oh, another thought; I’ll post another image of Andrea soon and also maybe a photo of the orchids. Till next time, Shalom

The eyes are now brown. I am beginning the very complicated work on the colorful shirt.  I like the choice Andrea made using the bright hat with the vivid and colorful plaid shirt.  These complicated articles are actually fun to paint if an artist is not in a hurry.  We must remember to examine how the light falls on these items as well as how the face is lit.  I really think a portrait is enhanced when the subject is lit brightly on one side and the shadow is dark on the other.  The old masters and modern artists of today call this chiaroscuro.  It can be very difficult to keep the skin tones believable when working on these two contrasting light effects. You will see in following images how the skin tones developed slowly over time until I felt there were soft transitions between the dark and the light. A model or client should never form an opinion when the work is in this stage.  If you were looking at a beautiful child and could only see the first layers (bones or muscle) you would not think this is the end result.  Perhaps this is why some artists never allow their clients to view the painting until it is finished.

When I paint a portrait I want it to have life and spirit.  I work by instinct not education or knowledge.  The one dimensional painting on a flat surface must have layers in order to ‘come alive.’ You can see here that during this painting of layers an artist must have confidence and insight in order to see past this unfinished condition.  Also it is important to look ahead to the desired skin texture, tone, life and beauty so that the artist knows when to stop.  After all, realism can be taken too far.  I am not trying to achieve perfection but to create a work of art.   (The eyes in this image may look blue but they are simply the unfinished under painting in grisaille.)  I attempt to make the original sketch as correct as possible but I will always be adjusting each feature to perfect the likeness and also the attitude and personality.

I have begun to post the work in progress of Andrea. I just posted image three and I realized that each image I post in order actually knocks the previous one down. In other words, I want our family to see the first ones first but the order they appear on this post will be the opposite. If Nelly or Andrea are checking this daily they will see them as I post them but if they find it after all the images are posted they will see the finished work and then scroll down to see the previous one. Well, I’ll just have to settle for that.
To all of you new followers of my post, hi and welcome. I am simply an artist who takes a little time to share what is happening in my studio. There is so much going on, I can’t keep up. I’ve so far never experienced artist burn out or artist block. My mind keeps ticking away and something is always calling me to get started. I simply have to decide and do the piece that is calling strongest. Right now I am working on a tiny view of nature for an artist’s group that meets about every six weeks. Hope I can get it finished. I have a huge piece in sketch that I need to start because it has to be ready for show entry in a couple of months. I have a portrait of my grandson in the works, simple and should be easy. I have an unfinished painting that I started several years ago and it got side tracked by others that seemed more pressing. I don’t like to let things remain unfinished unless I do that as an artistic choice. Hope what I post is at least interesting or inspiring.
My centenarian, mentioned in a previous post, has been hospitalized and is home again. He will turn one hundred in July. His wife is 92. They insist on taking care of themselves but how is that working for them: not so good. Seems there is not much I can do about it. My uncle is witty and feisty and fun to be with if you can tolerate his stubborn side. But he is tough. I’m glad!
The only other thing I’ll mention is that I’ve entered two national and international shows. I’ll let you know if any of my work is chosen. If so, I’ll tell you where to see it. Wish me luck. Diana

For those who follow this blog; I am placing these images on blog as a surprise for a special Foreign Exchange Daughter who lived with us when she was in her senior year of high school. Two years ago she visited us and I took some photos of her daughter hoping that I could paint a portrait eventually. At the moment she is away from her home country and I have not been able to reach her. I decided that I would post these on my blog spot so that she would see them when she checks this out. I will probably make a post on demonstrations to direct others looking for the step by step process in a painting.