Start of a double portrait Ritmart

Here is basically finished product of the twins :)

Twins
14x18 inch, oil on canvas

African card

Here is another small African card that I did

And a lion just for fun :) 

I am currently working on 2 commission paintings for a client and can hopefully post those on here too. With clients permission of course:)

Granny Rose,

Background. The painting was ordered by my ex-colleague Robyn for her boyfriend Wouter who is my colleague now. The boyfriend usually takes over the shift when I go home after mine.

One day Robyn approached me and asked if I would be able to paint a portrait for Wouter’s birthday and I agreed. Her boyfriend, of course, would not know and the painting would come as a surprise.  It turned out to be a photo of Wouter’s late grandma – what fantastic idea! This, however made things a bit more difficult as the scanned photos that Robyn sent me were of a poor quality- e.g., did not provide enough detail for a good portrait painting. In paintings the more detailed is the photo, the better is he resulting painting.

Eventually we agreed that Robyn will give me the photos when she drops Wouter at work and I go home. This worked out well. The photo had Wouter and his grandma on it. I was able to take better digital photos and get more detailed information, although it was not great either.

Of course, I never got to meet the grandma, but she looks like a very cool one, like the ones that have loads of love, but does not take any nonsense too I could not go too much in details and thus used a loose painting style and kept to the soft colors. We also added the roses to the top as granny loved gardening and her roses especially. 

Since there was no need for the actual photo anymore, I decided to take it to work and give it to Robyn when I have a chance. It was my night shift and I had the photos in the book I was reading. As one can imagine this was not a good idea, as I forgot the book on the table. Someone knocked the book and the photos fell out! Wouter of course recognized the photos and the question was raised- why does Ritma have photos of you? :D

We had to pretend that Robyn borrowed be the book and the photos were in it originally. This was a bit awkward, but everything came clear after the painting was presented. I am pleased to announce that Wouter loves the painting. 

Hand painted post cards

A few months ago I went to my favorite art shop (PNA in South Africa, they are specially good in Somerset West/ Strand area) and came across watercolor postcards- they are blank postcards that can be customized according to ones wishes.  I thought its such a cool idea. So here are some of mine:

They all are size A6. I find painting these fun as they are small and quick- well, compared to what I am used to. All are painted with acrylic, but i do think of giving an oil paint a try too. The only worry is if the oil is going to seep through the paper?

Now I need to figure out what to do with these postcards- cos at the rate I am going I will soon have a full house with these. I was thinking of maybe offering to do these for charity- in that case everyone benefits- charity with earning some bucks, me distributing my work. I think that's a great idea, what do you think?

"Sun kissed" portrait

Very often my biggest problem is choosing the subject to paint. especially if it is oil and on canvas - for some reason oil on canvas feels so much more serious. In fact acrylic is often a more durable medium.

So, one day I was browsing through Facebook, just like we all do, and I saw this photo of my friend. Oh, my- what an amazing photo! With her permission I am posting the portrait painting of her based on that photo. I know she is not a fan of yellow, but for some reason, yellow felt like the right color for it:)