Painting Jesus

When I just started painting I saw my granny in the dream. I used to spend my summer school holidays at her house. She passed when I was 14. I still remember that I was washing dishes when my parents told me. In the dream I asked my granny if she needs anything. She said "No. But I would love you to paint Jesus for me".

Since then about 7 years have passed. And I finally have courage to fulfill my granny's wish. It's not that I have not thought about it before. I just couldnt decide on the reference photo.

Then one day new were full with Leanardo da Vinci painting Salvator Mundi. I also heard somewhere that it's the painting on which all the other artists based their Jesus paintings on. So I decided to do it as well.

I have adjusted some details, but kept the general look of the Da Vinci painting.

The frame was made by my dad out of an old oak tree. My grandparents house now belongs to a local municipality and I hope they will agree to display this painting in it.

Difficult beauty

I was commissioned to do a portrait. When I saw the photo  I thought it will be an easy one--single person, block colors and clear lines. Oh, how wrong I was.

Portrait was of a beautiful girl. I love painting beautiful woman. The mistake turned out to be that I didnt ask for more photos of the subject.  As every girl and woman today she likes playing with the makeup and photos, thus looks different in different photos. I should have asked for more photos!

Also, the client wanted the portrait to be sent by currier, which I didn't expect to be an issue, but turned out to be one. I have the price from the web, but when I wanted to ship the painting, the currier company advised that they don't handle paintings as they can't establish the cost of the item and replace the value if something happens. Luckily a relative came to help and delivered the painting.

Race horse paintings

It's getting to the crazy time of the year here.

One of the events I would like to attend is the Western Cape Equine Trust fund raising. WCET is a non profit organisation's who restrains former race horses and find them homes after the racing career. Most of the horses are still young - 3, 4 years old as only a few make it in the demanding industry. These youngsters then need to find a new home--that's where WCET comes in. I used to volunteer at WCET  but since they have moved their location, we're unable to participate.

Here are my 2 last babies:

Two young race horses from April yearling sale

Double portraits and pricing

My latest commissions were 2 double portraits - beautiful twins (from the previous post) and a stunning couple.

People often ask why is the double portrait so much more expensive than a single, even though it is the same or similar size.  Double (and multiple) portraits more challenging than singles. Yes, I would not be using much more canvas and paint for double portrait compared to single, but...

- I still need to paint another portrait that would take me the same time as the single- so doubled time and attention.
- in the double the portrait is a bit smaller and its harder to get the details in it to achieve likeliness;
- the colors need to match. With that I mean that colors should not only be life like for one person, but also if looked between two people. For example in the couple portrait, it was easier to choose the colors as the skin tones are fairly distinct.
- if the portrait is combined from a different photos / positions, it involves extra planning to make the portrait look natural.

All in all, this was a fabulous commission. I am happy with the result, so are the clients :)

PS. Both portraits are oil on 14x18 inch stretched canvas.

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.