Bush gubernatorial portrait unveiled
 

Painted by Scott Gentling. I had never heard of him, has anyone else? The most prominent person previously painted was Jane Goodall and he was known for painting birds.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2002Jan4.html

There's a video on this page also. It has a frontal view of the portrait. The price was $10,000.

Bush portrait
 

Personally I really like the painting. It's light and fresh, unlike so many other "official" portraits. And, as a portrait painter who works mostly from photos, I was glad to read that the artist worked mostly from photos for this piece also. Makes me feel like I don't have to work only from life to have credibility!

Michele,

Have you seen Karin Well's post on painting from photos?

Yes, I have seen that post (and I re-read it just now. Thanks for reminding me of it!) It's great to hear a painter of Karin's impeccable quality talk so openly about needing to paint from photographs. I paint from photos for the same reasons she does. Since I almost always paint from my own photographs, I feel that allows me full creative control and I'm not just "copying" someone else's photo.

A recent addition to Stroke of Genius is Joseph Arul Raj. He painted a portrait of President Bush for the American Embassy in India. I actually prefer this one.

I prefer this one, too! It's one of the best man-in-a-black-suit paintings I've seen. The first one is nice, but cool and remote and reminiscent of a photograph. Bush really comes alive in this one.

I agree Pam. The artist is going to send me some photos of the painting hanging in the Embassy and then we will probably send the images and related information to the White House. How can the Bushes not love this portrait?

Geesh, I'm amazed that they might not know of this portrait already. Good luck.

Maybe they do, but doesn't hurt to remind them. :)