This is the third in the series of videos that show several portraits in the same category. This one is about women’s oil portraits.
One characteristic that each of these women have is that they are mothers. All added up, they have 16 children among them. For most, I painted their children first with separate paintings for each child so they could inherit individual portraits. Then the mothers went ahead and got portraits to reflect their own personalities. [continue reading…]
This is the second in my series of videos showing several portraits that have a relation to each other. This one is about brother sister oil portraits.
From the most casual to very dressy, they record the love of siblings in the grandest of style. Two of them came from photos that the parents had made themselves. They loved the photos so much that they wanted to make them into even more meaningful memories. When they crossed paths with me, both of the families poured out their delight in meeting someone who might be able to give them just what they had dreamed about. I couldn’t help but understand when I saw their photos. [continue reading…]
Here is the first in a series of short videos showing my oil portraits in related groups. This group covers a portrait tradition that grandparents made. Their 2 married sons and their wives gave them a total of 6 grandchildren. Voilà! 6 portraits of cousins! [continue reading…]
The reference photo for the oil portrait of Alexis was taken on a sunny day
Here are 4 ways on “how to get your photos to painted portraits” for people who want all the photography details. If you are not that kind of a person, however, don’t worry. Just contact me and I can personally direct you to use your photos to the best advantage.
When you have a favorite photo that you want painted into a prized custom oil portrait the best way to give me the highest quality is to send me a hi-resolution (“hi-res”) image. That means that it has a lot of megabytes (mb) so I can enlarge it to see as much detail as I want without it turning into an abstract display of [continue reading…]
This is a self-portrait made in 1991.
When I was learning to draw and paint I used to read biographies of artists that I admired. Looking back on this, I believe that time spent on this was as effective in getting me to my artistic goal of being a realistic portrait painter as time spent making pictures.
Learning about the lives of favorite artists made me realize that my life was just as ordinary (in its own very exceptional way of course) and acceptable as theirs were. There was nothing about my life that would make it difficult for me to pursue an artistic goal. In fact, though I often thought life was terribly difficult, I actually had had [continue reading…]
Ali thought that her true self was best represented in jeans. That’s how she wants to be remembered.
Ali’s mother asked me sort of timidly what I would think about a casual oil portrait of her beautiful teenage daughter in jeans. She actually liked the idea but was worried that I might not. I exclaimed “Terrific!” without reservation. I think it is great when a teenager has an opinion about how they want to be remembered.
Soon after that we did the photoshoot and got some wonderful shots. Next and as usual, I enjoyed the time I spent with the sketch of this pretty girl becoming more and more real as she looked out at me from my easel while I painted. When the portrait was finished both mother and daughter were very proud of their new very special [continue reading…]
This is an oil portrait of Dr. Megan Shields, a tireless, giving MD who passed away last month. I’m honored to have painted her.
I want to salute Megan Shields who passed away last month. She was a family doctor who helped so many people, including me at different times over the years. Like the old-time family doctor, she was held in very high esteem. Although she could prescribe drugs and even hospitalization when absolutely needed, she consistently looked for natural ways to handle conditions too. You could unfailingly count on her cleverness, honesty and warm understanding. She was so approachable. You could call her just “Megan” without for a minute forgetting her esteemed standing as a tireless healer.
I painted her in 1998. She said she loved the portrait, it was so “her”, and she delighted in seeing her pearls. She hung it in her office at first. [continue reading…]
This oil portrait’s coat of varnish can be removed and replaced with no harm to the painting.
In the history of painting, oil portrait varnishing was prevalent in earlier times. However, because the older type varnishes tended to yellow or darken and crack over the ages it gradually became unpopular. With modern technology we are told this has been handled, thus making it desirable again. On the other hand, indoor atmospheres are much cleaner than they were in yesteryear, so varnishing is not needed (or applied) as much as it used to be.
The idea behind varnishing is to protect the painting from any possible environmental dirt, dust and moisture. Many years down the line, if your painting does need cleaning, you can [continue reading…]
Batista and Evelyn record their love for posterity
I took great pleasure in painting the oil portraits of husband and wife Batista and Evelyn Madonia of Plant City, Florida. It all started that very special day several years ago. They had seen my work on TV (a Fox News feature) and called me right away. Evelyn said that in all the memorable decades of their marriage they had never had an original oil portrait done and it was definitely time. We scheduled them to come to my studio for a reference photoshoot for my painting. [continue reading…]
Click on the white triangle above to see the CBS program with Norman Rockwell’s oil painting, “The Rookie.”
I love hearing stories about my cousin Norman Rockwell. I thought you might enjoy this one about a favorite oil paining. It was sent to me from a client of mine who said I could share it with you.
“I came across my favorite oil painting by Norman Rockwell, ‘The Rookie.’ It was shown in 1957 on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post Magazine. You know how each one of his paintings struck a cord with the public? This one came very close to home for me. I even knew the old clubhouse shown in the painting. [continue reading…]
