The Completed Portrait. . .

Storey Rose at Six . 14" x 11" . oil on linen covered panel

 

As promised, here's the completed portrait of Storey Rose.  I'm ready to move on to the next, but as you may know if you follow/read this blog, I will put it aside and perhaps go back into it if I see something that's "bugging" me.  Yes, you'll get a small nick in your mind of something you'd like to change, just a little bit.  That nick will grow into a huge "I can't stop thinking about it" thing and you will have to put it back on the easel and take care of that particular itch.  Happens all the time. 

 

Once again I feel I've grown in leaps and bounds with this portrait, particularly with settling on my portrait palette, my technique and process.  It's taken about four years and when I consider the vast opportunity to keep growing in the future, I feel like I'm trying to comprehend the Universe. . .it's limitless with infinite possibility.  I've gotten to the point of intense study of other's faces - in person, on the TV screen,  movie screen. 

 

The sheer array of nose shapes boggles the mind. . .  

 

Storey will always remain my muse - I feel a bond to her that's like no other.  We share a certain "knowingness" and being on the same wavelength; something I richly shared with my own grandmother, and I like to think the tradition continues.  At a gathering this past Sunday night, I actually met a woman who so reminded me of my grandmother - she looked like her and had a similar voice - before I left I told her so, and we shared a really sweet moment.  I'm afraid I got a little misty eyed, but it was for all the great good reasons - lovely memories being stirred and brought to the surface.  I left the party feeling a quiet contentment with those memories.  The bonds never really slip away. . .we simply carry on in their place, more alike than apart.