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I love painting portraits, pets/animals, land and sea scapes, and still lifes in acrylics, oils in oils, acrylics, and sometimes watercolors.
Showing posts with label The Alamo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Alamo. Show all posts

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A PORTRAIT IN HISTORY



About a month ago a gentleman commissioned a portrait from me. He had black and white photos of his parents and wanted them painted in color, using his own skin tones and the variations in the black and white photos as the basis and wanted his father wearing his military hat- which he was not wearing in the photo. The gentleman also wanted to show that his family came from Mexico, but had moved to the U.S. and that a direct decendant of his had fought at the Alamo and wanted the date on the flag waving over the Alamo. It was tricky getting all of that onto the painting without having too much. All the portraits that I've painted up until now have been in acrylic paints. This was my first oil portrait and I have to say that the wait time between the layers of oil paint just about drove me crazy. Ok, so, here are the black and white photos and also the finished painting - that was delivered last week. What do you think?

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

THE ALAMO - also unfinished


Well, I was thinking yesterday must have been some kind of fluke or something (me not getting the painting completed) because I really felt like Super Woman then and did again today. So, I painted another 11"x14" today - and didn't get it finished either! The Subject is the Alamo and it seems to be much simpler than yesterday's Grand Canyon so maybe the size difference is the make or break factor. I'm packing it in for the night. The lines on everything in the painting still need to be straightened, colors deepened, the trees are still missing and so are the people. I'm going back to the 8"x10" or smaller sizes from here on out until the 21st. Too bad. I don't like painting small. This is going to be one very busy week getting them all finished!

The Alamo is something that every Texas painter must do at least once or their status of Texan is seriously questioned. This is my first one. Since it stands for independence and fighting for what one believes in, It seems fitting for today - voting day. Did you go make your vote count? I voted for the first time in my life today because of an e-mail that went around a few weeks ago about the suffragists fighting for women's rights back in my grandma's time. Reading about what few rights women had back then was sickening and shamed me into going to vote - even though I'm not too sure just how much our votes count these days. I did it for my grandma, myself, and for all women.

The Alamo
Oil
11"x14"