Inspiring children

Sean
36" x 24"
acrylic on canvas
sold

Sometimes when I'm working on a portrait it
comes together so quickly that I amaze
myself. I've tried analyzing why this happens
and can't give you any concrete answers.
It's not simply about connection, because
some of the portraits that have taken the
longest time to do were of people I loved.

This portrait of Sean was a complete surprise,
because it developed with such ease.
Sean is a fantastic human -- when I painted him
he was verging on 15. He was polite, incredibly
funny, loved his family, was devoted to board
sports, and liked school. We seemed to click
instantly, and every portrait session was a
pleasure. He liked eating cookies and talking
in the breaks; he enjoyed the cats, and
happily wore my son's white shirt for every
session.

His was the third in a series of three images
that would hang together on a wall at his
parents' place. The paintings had to work
individually, and when hung together had
to appear to be one big work. I
completed the series last summer, and
it is definitely one of the best things I've done.

Group Portrait
Sean, Madeline and Elizabeth
36" x 6'
acrylic on canvas
sold

Despite all our training, practice, knowledge,
and understanding painting is a chemical
or alchemical process. Sometimes it is
so easy we feel with every brush stroke that
we were born to paint, sometimes every
decision is painfully deliberate -- and the
results can be exactly the same, giving
off the same feeling of delighted ease,
whether we had a great, or difficult time
producing the image.

Here's to a day of effortless creativity.