I have spent all of August in a blissful artist mood, working on several projects. The 500 years Valbonne book (more later!), my expo in the Chateau des Demoiselles (more later!) and the one that I told some of you about: 'the dead wife painting'.
This was the challenge:
A commission to paint the portrait of a woman who passed away. I have done that before, but I always knew the person. In this case I had never met her. Her husband gave me a lot of pictures which I carefully studied. Then I sent him the selection that I thought would be a good basis for a portrait. He never replied, and, confident as I am, I assumed I chose the correct examples and started with an aquarelle. A big one. On Arches 600grs torchon...
When I was happy with the face, I sent a picture to him, expecting praise and maybe even emotion. He replied that it was awful and didn't look like her at all... oops! That was the start of a very very interesting path, in which I became humble again and learned a lot! It was a combined effort, of using the pictures more loosely, and adding what he told me about her. Spontaneous, warm, with a real smile, and colourful clothes...
After 28 watercolours and at least as many sketches, I finally got it right. I loved it. He loved it. He actually loved it so much that he asked me to paint 2 more portraits like it, to give to other people who loved her. And that's how I spent my off-Hangar days - couldn't have wished for a better way...
Here are the three portraits I finally delivered, all 3 on rough handmade paper:
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