Mayor Cindy Siegel

About a month ago I had the opportunity to paint the Cindy Siegel, the Mayor of Bellaire, from life. Above is my painting, it is 16″ x 20″ oil on linen canvas. A group of us painted Mayor Siegel, there were probably a total of 15 paintings produced from 3 sittings. I painted her three times, the one I’m showing here is what I did the second sitting. The sitting was 3 hours long. Mayor Siegel is a lovely woman and was the perfect model, you would think she was a model. Not everyone can hold still for hours on end with only short breaks.

The paintings will be auctioned off at a reception on April 18th. The money raised for the paintings will go to the Houston Civic Arts Association, that’s the place where I take my painting classes. I have a beautiful frame for the painting, I’ll take my painting over to HCAA the morning of the 18th and that evening the silent auction and reception will take place.

I need to put a starting bid on my painting, which is always difficult. Actually, they want to know the price of the painting and they’ll start the bidding at half of that. It should be a fun evening and I really really hope someone will bid on my painting! The idea is that a citizen of Bellaire (Bellaire is it’s own incorporated city within the Houston city limits, think “Pasadena is to LA”), anyway, someone will buy the painting and then donate it to the city. The city will hang the painting in the mayors office, a library, or some other government building. I hope it works.

Below is a close-up from the painting. This was really fun, it reminds me of how much I love to paint people, which is a good thing since I have two portrait commissions hanging over my head right now!