Sisters on canvas

This is the painting I did for my mum. It is based on a photo of my sister and I, circa 1982. My sister is the cheeky monkey on the right.

I would love to say that painting this was a piece of cake, but there was some difficulty.. At some point, luckily, I realised that I was the problem. Because I wanted it to be Exactly Like The Photo and I just couldn’t capture that. So I kept re-doing areas, which would then make other areas look ‘off’. But then I had the ‘eureka’ moment and simply told myself to stop thinking so much (= judging myself!) and just get on with it, and I think it did the trick.

I still didn’t capture the photo Exactly. But that is ok, because my mum loved it and said that it was better than any present I could have bought for her. So I guess I must have got it kinda right. ;-)

Definitely not the last portrait-y painting I’ll do. Painting a portrait is a crazy and amazing thing, because you have to sort of get under the skin of the person. Especially challenging when the subject is yourself or someone you know well…