So yesterday afternoon I had my first row of the season. Being a wooden, clinker-built craft there was quite a lot of water under the duck boards (I’m not having much luck with water these days) but I took this to be a result of the timbers contracting during its time out of the water, and I guess as the wood swells the leak will be kept to a minimum.
On the way down the river my phone rang. It was a new client asking me to paint a miniature portrait for an retiring Grand Master of a London Livery Company. I think he was surprised when he realised where I was – especially as he had to ring back when I nearly capsized!
About an hour into my row I stopped at ‘Tollgate’ – just below Henley Bridge where my friends John and Kate Hutchinson live, and was invited in for tea and hot cross buns. Judy Fraser was there as well (she’s a wonderful artist who paints on eggs) and we spent a pleasant hour in the conservatory enjoying the sunshine and watching the occasional eight pass by (they are practising for the Ladies Regatta this Sunday).
With daffodils and pink and white blossoms on the trees along the riverbanks and the first green haze on the weeping willows, the row back home was tranquillity itself. The bird life was dominated by the raucous squawking of Canada geese and little coots bobbing up and down in the water in their search for food. I had the river all to myself – nothing else was moving on the water. Wonderful.
This is my latest commissioned miniature portrait. It’s of Kay Petryszak – the President of
The Miniature Artists of America, and a very good friend of mine. It’s always easier to paint someone you know well. Kay has seen the portrait via email and has given permission to include it in my blog.
I’m often asked how I go about painting a miniature portrait, and as I scanned this particular portrait from time to time as I painted it, you may be interested in the following:
Initial painting of clothes on the vellum surface
Completed clothes - I love turquoise
First painting of the face and hair
Background added to give tonal balance Final Portrait of Kay Petryszak
If you click on to any of the portraits you should see them enlarged. You’ll also see the brush-strokes I expect. The original miniature is just over 3 inches high, by the way
Yesterday evening Paul and Debbie picked me up and we spent a happy evening at the Chef Peking in Henley. They are off on the drive up to Morecombe today where Paul will be performing tonight. That man does travel.
Final note: I’m in a minority of one it seems, as Mona – another good artist and Florida friend – has left comments on my blog and has joined the throng of females who eat popcorn in cinemas. OK - I’m outnumbered, I admit it. (But I still don’t like the smell of popcorn in my face – unless I’m eating it myself, of course!)