Jayden’s portrait

Jayden’s portrait

After spending Jayden’s birthday with him, I decided that the next thing to do in the studio might be a portrait  of him.  As you might know, I rarely to portraits of people, but I thought this might be an exception.  I have done self portraits and a few of my kids with their pets, but that is about all.  I’ve never accepted a commission for one, even though I’ve been asked.  People are hard and while I can experiment on my own and have it wnd up in the circular file, I am not confident enough to accept outside work where someone is counting on it as a gift or remembrance.

I feel okay about this.  It’s not great, but it’s not too bad.  The mouth seems a bit off to me.  Sometimes that’s what happens.  I may try again next year around his birthday again.

Boise foothills finished

Boise foothills landscape

After about 4 sessions of painting, I am pretty well finished with the Boise painting. I’ll check again in a week or so and see what changes I think it needs, but I pretty happy with it so far.  At 16″x12″, this is the largest acrylic painting I have done in a very long time.  I tried to keep the style loose and concentrate on color rather than specific details.  For me, the heavy bodied paint works against minute brush strokes, even though I use a paint drying retardant and it thins it somewhat.  I’ll be ready to try my other big canvas with another Boise landscape soon.