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.
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