The Patil Portrait: "Unveiled"

The Patil family came over to take their first look at their portrait ... the one I've been secretly working on over the past 10 months. All went very well!!!

I have a few tweaks ... nothing major ... and then it will be theirs.

I truly enjoyed working on this portrait from beginning to end. It's my greatest challenge to date ... four people, two dogs, largest canvas I've painted, etc. What I particularly loved about it is that this is the kind of painting I'd want to do on my own. The Patil's had seen my restaurant series ... particularly the painting I did of "Randy and Me" and decided that's the kind of portrait they would like of their family. Amazing!

The painting depicts real life in the Patil family ... right before daughter Radhika was going off to college. I did a series of photo shoots during their dinner hour and drew the concept ... a combination of bits and pieces from hundreds of photos. There's a lot of life there.

I wondered about pleasing everyone in the family. Was that possible? Yes, and yea!

Raj (the dad) made two comments that made me very happy. He said he felt like he was right there sitting with them. He also said that they looked real ... or alive ... so much different than a photo. I've been in awe of when that happens right before your eyes as you paint. It's truly magical. I'm glad he saw it, too.

I'm showing some pretty poor photos at the moment. The three tripods I have in the garage are all missing the part that screws into the bottom of my camera ... so I took the photos without that. I move. Constantly. Add to that the room's light is pretty yellow. Add to that I was so anxious to post this I didn't bother to move the chair.

I'll finish this up and take better photos soon.

Find out more about commissioning a portrait on my web site. See the gallery pages for a look at other portraits and the commissions page for pricing and process information.

So, this is post #3 for today. Be sure to read post #2 about special news about son Sam and Michelle ... and post #1 about this afternoon's alla prima portrait.

Tonight I'm painting an interior of my dining room. Such a wonderful day.

"The Patil Portrait" almost done, oil on Angel linen, approx. 44"h x 59"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435