Graduation Gift

[Holly Snyder]

Linda,

This is painted beautifully. I particularly like her direct, confident gaze. She will be a real attention-getter, wherever the painting is hung.

[Mike McCarty]

Linda,

This is a beautiful portrait. The background works perfectly and I like the expressive brush work.

No doubt your family holds you up as a goddess and constantly asks if they can refill your beverage glass.

[Linda Brandon]

Originally Posted by Mike McCarty

No doubt your family holds you up as a goddess and constantly asks if they can refill your beverage glass.

Mike, I wish there were an icon on the right of this reply box for "Head on Keyboard, Weeping With Laughter".

I feel that I'm getting undue credit here for the beauty of my sitter. I've decided that I'm only going to paint gorgeous young girls from now on.

Claudemir, this painting started out in a vertical format and was supposed to be painted solely from life, two hour sessions every day. But by the end of the second week I had turned it horizontally (all those verticals seemed too much for a vertical format) and took photos of the sitter to finish the painting. (Sigh!) I had considered putting some flowers or a plant behind the chair but I thought it might add too much sentimentality to what I wanted to be a direct and intense portrait.