Beach Children

Leslie Ficcaglia · 11-28-2002, 10:17 AM

My only profession is painting but I don't practice it full time, so I'm posting here.This portrait was commissioned by the children's grandmother, and I went down to take the reference photos on a day when the temperatures were near 100 degrees. There was no respite even on the beach. The children were so hot and stressed that it was difficult to get much of anything. Eventually I went back on a cooler day to get better material for the little girl - a first for me. This painting presented a further challenge because both children were looking downward in the pose I used, so I needed to take faces from two other photos to have them gazing at the viewer in the painting. These other photos were shot away from the beach, in a grassy yard, so the lighting and reflections were different than the beach pictures. Thank heavens for an extensive reference library! Chris Saper's excellent book had a section on sand and sky reflections, where she discussed her painting of two siblings on a beach, which was a lifesaver.

I showed a photo of this portrait to a friend who is also an artist, and she exclaimed, "Those are my cousins!" So apparently I caught them. The client is very pleased with it but I'm having trouble delivering it because I enjoy looking at it so much. Anyone else have difficulty letting go?

Enzie Shahmiri · 11-28-2002, 11:38 AM

Leslie,

The kids are very cute. When you spend a lot of time working on a project, you either start to hate the work and want to part with it as soon as possible or you develop a certain attachment. Letting go is never easy, but knowing that your hard work is giving others pleasure makes it easier.

Leslie Ficcaglia · 11-28-2002, 11:44 AM

Thanks, Enzie! The only one I've ever been in a hurry to deliver was the last one I did. I should have posted it in the critiques section for ideas; there always seemed to be something slightly off about it. But the client loved it. I find the ones of children hardest to let go. Luckily I've got quite a few of my own kids and grandkids that I can keep and savor.

Mike McCarty · 11-28-2002, 12:59 PM

Leslie,

This is a beautiful portrait. I don't get any sense that you pieced this together. Great expressions on both kids and good color harmony throughout. I don't think you mentioned the size or medium.

Leslie Ficcaglia · 11-28-2002, 01:18 PM

Whoops, Mike, you're right! It's 18" x 24" and in oils, which is the only medium I use for my portraits. That size is popular for two subjects. Thanks so much for your kind words; I loved the expressions too. Although there's a difference in age, these two love to spend time on the beach together, and the brother is usually very attentive to his little sister. The grandmother wanted me to capture that relationship.

Actually, the girl was harder to piece together than the boy, whose head was almost in that position in the original photo but just with his eyes cast down and the whole head slightly lower. For the girl I had to ad lib a little on the shoulder/neck juncture on our left, but luckily I had enough photos of them in various poses that there were some references to work from. Still, that's part of the fun of painting - making a totally new image from several pieces. I wanted to make it looks as though they were engrossed in their play and had just looked up at the viewer.