The show in Saint Charles went very well. I had mostly new works and all of the new work was very well received. Right afterwards I heard about a show coming in April that looked like a good challenge for me, although it would again delay me getting back to the landscape.
I am happy to say I am going to be entering a competition. The Portrait Society of America has a portrait show with a deadline this coming week. In an effort to fulfill the criteria and submit an entry, I had to paint a new portrait suitable for that show.
My first choice was to paint a self portrait, something I have been encouraged by many of you to do for some time. This was a surprisingly difficult task. In order to capture a good likeness I felt that it was important to be accurate. What I discovered was that scrutiny makes for a severe look and if I do paint my image accurately, I must not just reveal my flaws but focus on them – something no woman really wants to do.
When that was completed, I decided that since a person can enter 3 pieces for the entry fee, I should keep painting. The 2nd portrait is one of my husband. It is gentler and more playful, and done in a way that compliments my portrait. It was my thinking that these 2 portraits would probably have a permanent home on the wall of our house and so should hang well together.
Surprisingly, not too many day after I finished these two, I woke one Saturday night with an image in my mind that I wanted to put on canvas quickly. I began the painting of the young man, a pre-teen boy in fact, during one of those times at 2:00 in the morning when you wake up with a busy mind and need to do something fruitful.
Lucky for me, I was still off work the next day and so was able to paint for an hour or so during the night and proceed to complete the painting the next day.
The lovely inertial that painting at this pace has left me with, carried me into another portrait and a landscape to complete the month’s cadre. What a fun and productive month this has been.
I have decided to enter the competition with the portrait of myself and my husband and this fictitious young man. Since entry for shows are now digital, I will submit this week in time to be eligible.
All of these new works will be in my booth this next weekend when I attend the Echoes of the Past living history show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Kelly E. James 