Sutherland Portrait Unveiling

Removing the veil

Posing with Mr. Sutherland

GNFA Executive Director, Randy Moore

Some of the Agricultural Exposition Authority and family

 Honorary plaque

Portrait Unveiling

My latest portrait of James Eugene Sutherland will be unveiled on the opening day of the Georgia National Fair! The dedication ceremony will be held on Thursday, October 4th at 2:00pm at the Sutherland Livestock Equine Arena. The Georgia National Fair is a great time to spend the weekend and bring the kids to enjoy all the festivities there!

Thursday, October 4th at 2:00pm
Sutherland Livestock Equine Arena
Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter
401 Larry Walker Parkway
Perry, Georgia 31069-1367
http://www.georgianationalfair.com

Hollis

This time I thought I'd blog a little more about the process of creating a portrait. A lot of unseen work usually happens before the painting even begins! The portrait of Hollis was commissioned by the grandfather of Hollis to be a suprise gift for his wife. He wanted to include the grandson and his daughter's and son's pets. The dog on the left, Gentle, unfortunately passed away the night before the photo shoot, but the family still wished to include him in the portrait. After reviewing old family photos, we selected this image to be the best one to use for Gentle. We chose this one for the eye level perspective and the lack of red/green eye that typically happens when you take a photo of your pet using a flash.

We kept this photo in mind while we were doing the photo shoot to make sure we always left room for the possibility of including Gentle in the portrait.

There usually isn't one flawless photo for me to work from for a portrait, especially when working with toddlers because they move so quickly! At one point we gave Hollis some skittles to cheer him up! The top photo shows him holding a piece of candy and rubbing his tummy in all his happiness! :) This picture created a pleasant look on his face, but of course we didn't want him rubbing his belly in the portrait! The second pose was one Hollis put himself in. While a photographer normally wouldn't intentionally pose a child like this, Hollis' mother said that this is how he sits a lot.  With portraits, I always enjoy something that is unique to the person in the painting and the pose was one of those perfect quarky elements that are unique and specific to Hollis. So it was easy to select this picture for his figure.  

"Hollis"

This is the finished oil portrait. I did a mirror image of Gentle to fit on the other side of Hollis. It was a little tricky adjusting the color tones from the blue tones in the original photo of Gentle so that he would match the coloring of the other dog in the portrait. I also used other reference images to give Gentle a paw which was cut off in the original image. Hope you enjoyed reading about the process of composing this image! 

Artblink 2012

I was asked to participate in UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center's Artblink on February 25, 2012. It is their annual fundraising gala at The Kirkland Clinic. Artblink is made of about 18 artists that are asked to create a work of art in 90 minutes in front of a live audience and then the work is auctioned off. I was thrilled to participate! It was a new challenge for me because I have never painted infront of an audience before and I paint SLOW, so I've never created anything in 90 minutes. My dad joked that I can't even sign my name in 90 minutes!

My participation was in honor of my Dad, who had just been declared cured of throat cancer earlier that month. He was a patient at The Kirkland Clinic. My husband's grandmother, Joan Sutherland aka "Granny Grunt" was also honored that night with her photo displayed on my table. Granny Grunt was battling lung cancer during the event and passed the following Monday.

I decided to paint a water lily scene for the event. The reference photo was taken at Monet's water lily garden. I didn't get a clean shot of just the painting, but here are a few photos from that night. You can see my portrait "Lauren" on display in the background. The event was a big success, with the committee raising around 1.5 million dollars! For more info about the event click here http://138.26.246.74/index.html

My Dad and I at the start of the event

I had to listen to music while I worked to help calm my nerves from people watching me. I'm a little bit of an introvert what can I say?

With the finished painting

The winning patrons of my auction piece!