Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning from my studio in East Nashville. I hope everyone is well. Just two days until Thanksgiving. The American tradition was established in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, though the concept dated back to 1621 The national holiday has changed over the course of time, but still revolves around the original celebration of a good harvest and enough to eat. We are blessed that the majority of Americans do have enough to eat and can celebrate, let’s remember that there are those of use who are not so fortunate and need our help.

The holiday also is the cutoff for Christmas commissions. I don’t write about my process much, but let me briefly describe how this goes. I receive a commission. I request several natural light photos (because I discovered years ago a painting can’t be done from a flash photo). Once received, I then draw out the outlines of the subject. Once that is done, I lay on the first layer of paint, called the underpainting. This lays out the basic colors and placement of the subject. Then, I add several subsequent thin layers of paint to build up the image. This layering is what gives the portraits such depth. It also takes time, because in addition to the time to apply the layers, they need to dry between the layers. So the average portrait can take two weeks (and sometimes more) to complete. While I can work on multiple portraits at a time, cutting off at Thanksgiving only gives me about 3 1/2 weeks to get them done. So, if you want one for Christmas, please send the order in by Thursday.

In the meantime, here’s Hogarth. I actually got to meet him. He is one amazing pup. He’s a service dog for my client, smart as can be, and beautiful He took quite a while to do, but in the end he turned out well and my client was very happy with it.

Thanks for looking; enjoy the painting, and again, Happy Thanksgiving.