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

The Tutu Portrait

This portrait was just given to the young girl depicted in the painting ... in honor of her 21st birthday. She's dancing with her big brother in "May I Have This Dance?", a painting commissioned by her mom.

I wrote a post about it back in January when I finished it ... but had to wait for the present to be presented to unveil it here. What a pleasure painting it and delivering it has been. What I loved about it is that the photo was tiny, a little blurry, a little grainy, etc. But all the caring between this brother and sister was there. The details weren't important.

I've had great emails back and forth with mom Sally since first delivering the painting. The latest was this one after her daughter received her present.

We had Sally's 21st birthday party in Charlottesville Saturday night. She absolutely flipped over the "tutu" portrait! It will go down in Simms history as one of the best gifts ever. Her guests were blown away ... Many thanks to you, talented friend!

"May I Have This Dance?", oil on Senso linen, 14"h x 11"w, copyright Jill Banks 2009.

For more information on commissioning a portrait, see my web site, www.jillbanks.com.

Come see my work and the work of 26 other artists this weekend for the Great Falls Studios Spring Art Festival. I'll be at 1144 Walker Road, Suites D (downstairs) and G (upstairs), Great Falls, VA from 10am-5pm both Saturday and Sunday.

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

Commissioning a Portrait

There's something about turning the calendar page to November that triggers an almost Pavlovian portrait commissioning response. As an artist who accepts commissions, I can feel the earth rumble. Soon, the deluge will come.

If you're thinking about commissioning a portrait, I want to talk to you about your ideas, but I also thought I could help with a few pointers and ideas of my own. Please also visit my web site: www.jillbanks.com and see the Gallery pages (Portraits & Figures and the Places pages) plus the Commissioning a Portrait page. The Places page shows my unique approach to painting people. I am painting a whole series depicting real people (husband Randy and me included) dining in restaurants and just enjoying special, relaxed moments. These are paintings that weren't actually commissioned -- but many (a whole lot) of them have ended up in the homes of the pictured subjects (or their relatives). Some are still for sale -- through me or through Chasen Galleries (in Richmond, VA and Charlotte, NC). Give me a call at (703) 403-7435 or email me at jillbanks1@aol.com if you are interested in a piece.


In the Places gallery on my web page you can see that I love depicting people as naturally as possible... and particularly enjoy showing relationships and interactions between the painting's subjects. I could work with you to achieve a similar portrait of you, your family and your friends. This isn't the simplest approach to portraiture, but it is a great celebration of life. (I can and do paint more traditional portraits -- they can be the right way to go, too.)

For each of the paintings depicted in the Places gallery, I used photography that I had taken myself -- often using many photos as references, and then recreated some portion of the painting to work from life. An example is on "Randy and Me" shown above. This depicts my husband and I at a great restaurant in Santa Fe where we managed to garner the window table. Randy walked outside and took my photo, and I did the same for him. I used a composite of the two to understand how we looked together and to capture the background. Then, I painted myself looking at the mirror (didn't use the photo at all) and had my husband pose for me sitting on a stool. While that's a lot of juggling to pull the portrait together, the result is one that really rings true for the two of us. It's us.

Start thinking. What would be right for you?

By the way, I am dying to paint a dancer or dancers. This image has been "dancing" around in my head for about a year. This stems from my personal attachment to my "Bellydancer" paintings and seeing John Singer Sargent's "El Jaleo" painting at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. (This is the second time I've mentioned this ... hmmm.) Maybe Flamenco dancers, a scene from a wedding reception ... something exciting. I'm a collaborative painter -- I welcome other people's ideas. You can comment on this post or drop me an email at jillbanks1@aol.com.


Coming posts will give ideas for Christmas gifts, and much more about commissioning a portrait. Stay tuned.

"Randy and Me", 30"h x 40"w, oil on linen; "Jason", 16"h x 12"w, oil on linen-lined board; "Friends (in Florence)",11"h x 14"w, oil on linen-lined board. All paintings copyright Jill Banks. All rights reserved.