Bailey Was Here: My Youngest Face is #16

"Sweet Bailey" is Face #16. The cloth flowers on her head were only there sometimes.

Whew! It worked.
Bailey and her mom came to sit for me today. Bailey's all of six-and-a-half months' old and is as cute as you see here ... or even cuter. I took over 100 photos today but painted only from life. No touchups here or there. The photos were just because Bailey looked so darn cute no matter where she was or what she was doing. It's amazing how big a space looks when a munchkin is sitting in it.

I was thinking before Bailey and mom showed up how large I wanted her face to be on the canvas. Did I want to scale her down so you had some sense for her littleness or did I want to zoom in and give you a closer look at her Bailey-ness? What happens is the size/scale just suggests itself ... and once put down you can't imagine it any other way.

Bailey and her mom check out progress. Note the flowers had fallen off.

Just to give you a picture of the process ... you can't direct a baby to sit any particular way. Mom held her and when I wanted her head to look up, toys would go a bit higher. Bailey's mouth was only visible sometimes. She was happy to be chewing on toys, mom's hand or sucking on her binky. Her head would turn, look up, look down (all of her face would disappear).  If I couldn't see her mouth, I couldn't see her chin and her cheeks would change shape. Mom stuck flowers on her head with "booger tape" (I think that's what she called it) and that would last for a little while and then fall off. So I painted them when they were on and painted other parts when they were available/visible. A "go with the flow" painting. I loved every minute of it.

I could have painted Bailey a thousand different ways.  It was hard to pick just one.

Modeling's hard work. I'm pooped.

As this painting progressed, I just found myself smiling at the painted Bailey. There's no way not to. (Try it.) This painting just makes me happy.

Bailey's mom is someone I love and the two of us were looking forward to just spending time together and enjoying ourselves. Which we did. She's unbelievable with kids ... and has always wanted them but had to wait a good long while before that happened. Seeing her as a mom is beautiful ... and she has two lucky daughters.


Bailey is an extraordinarily happy and peaceful baby. Supposedly, according to her mom, she was a little crankier than normal. We both agreed that if that was cranky, mom didn't have much to complain about.

I was so glad this worked. You never know. No angst. Just happy, peaceful, easygoing painting of a beautiful baby. Yea!

I will be painting Bailey's sister and mom and potentially her dad. (This will be news to him.) In my call for volunteers, I've had many families, many couples come forward. I'll have to ask  permission before posting some copies of emails that I've been sent ... but the reactions have been unbelievably positive ... and it's fun for people to share this experience with a spouse.

I did get a great email from Judith St. Ledger-Roty (Face #15) who has more than forgiven me for holding her hostage all day. She enjoyed it ... a lot!

So, now I need to regroup. Get ready for tomorrow's portrait class. Take care of some art business. Have dinner. All that stuff.

And pictures of Bailey will be dancing around in my head. Beautiful day.

Read more about my 100 Faces in 100 Days Project in earlier posts (every day since January 1) and two posts about the planning stages in late December ... and on my web site which I just updated tonight. On my 100 Faces in 100 Days project page, each of my first 16 sitters paintings is there along with a link back to their respective blog posts. Cool.

"Sweet Bailey", Face #16, oil on Raphael linen-lined board, 12"h x 12"w, copyright Jill Banks 2011.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
100 Faces in 100 Days Project: www.jillbanks.com/jillbanks/100_Faces_in_100_Days_Project.html
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435