My mother

This is my mother, she is 85. She was evacuated from her home before Ike, as was my sister and her family, so they were all staying about an hour away from where I was staying with my family. We were fortunate to be able to spend the week in the hill country, it’s such a beautiful part of Texas.

My mom spent a day with us at my mother in law’s and I asked her if I could paint her. She was happy for me to paint her, no one had ever painted her before, so I moved a comfy chair close to a north facing window for her. North light is consistent throughout the day so it’s good to paint by, it doesn’t change as much as light coming in a west facing window would, for instance. Anyway, I got my mom comfortable and then set up my french easel. The biggest canvas I had was an 8″x10″ so that’s what I used.

She posed for two 30 minute sessions with a nice little break in between. I needed another 10 minute session after that for adjustments. Then we were done. I have painted plenty of models in classrooms and workshop situations but I’ve never painted anyone from life otherwise. I guess I never thought I could do it. In fact, it was my husband who suggested I paint her and when I wasn’t sure, he said “what do you have to lose?”. Which is really true for all my paintings, what’s the worst that can happen? I may not be happy with it so I wipe it off. Thank you Andy for making the suggestion and for pushing me a bit when I needed it.

It is so different to paint from life as opposed to painting from a photo. My mom was talking during the sessions, my daughter was in the room so my mom was looking over at her, and my mom even dozed off twice. But I think all this subtle movement is what gives a portrait from life, well, life!

At the beginning of this post I posted a close-up of the painting, here is the whole thing. It certainly isn’t perfect but I captured her and I will cherish this painting forever, and it’ll always be a reminder of that day we spent together during the Hurricane Ike evacuation. And I think she’s beautiful.