Much demand for bridal portraits?

[Michele Rushworth]

Can anyone tell me if they've found much demand for bridal portraits, and what part of the country you're referring to? (I'm in Seattle.) I think I'd really enjoy painting bridal portraits but I was wondering if brides might be too self conscious to hang a portrait of themselves in their home.

Thanks!

[Cynthia Daniel]

The only thing I can tell you is that in the six years I managed Robert Schoeller, he never did a single bridal portrait. Neither had he in all the years prior to my working with him. Honestly, I don't think it's a big demand item, but some do them.

I have a Bridal Gallery on Stroke of Genius, so there were enough to warrant that. However, two of the portraits are actually members of a wedding party rather than brides. Take a look:

http://www.portraitartist.com/bridal.htm

[Steven Sweeney]

I spent some time in a studio where I was exposed daily to the wedding portrait work of classical realist Stephen Gjertson (search Yahoo; lots of sites), whose work was so strong, so compelling, that some viewers probably wished they could marry one of the subjects. Years ago, he did a series of them for promotional purposes. My information is that they went nowhere.

Having been married 25 years, and having looked at our very professional wedding portraits only 2 or 3 times in the past 24-7/8 years, I suspect that the "problem" with bridal/wedding portraits is that they capture such a brief, fleeting, innocent and naive moment in our lives, we want in a portrait something more of the mature, lasting quality of the individuals, something that rarely reveals itself until several years after the typical youthful marriage.

I don't know if that's reasonable or not, but there has to be SOME explanation for why bridal and wedding portraits are relatively rare. Perhaps it's because they're more a portrait of an event than of the personalities of the people involved, and for the purpose of recording the event, photographs are the way to go.