Youthful Beauty

16" x 20", oil on linen

A dear friend shared a photo of her daughter with me, that the daughter's friend had taken, and said that she envisioned the image as a painting. From one, to another, to a mother, and to me - so many people sharing in the beauty of a simple, captured moment. 

Work began, and as the painting progressed, it became increasingly obvious that something was "off". It was not without calculations and finagling and tweaking of the vanishing point, which the Amazing Reese helped me accomplish by stretching a piece of thread across the canvas, that the painting finally started coming together. 

Finding the vanishing point with a piece of thread

Painting is a mystery. How is it possible to take an idea or an image and convert it to a flat surface? Though I've spent years painting and creating, the finished product still overwhelms me with wonder. 

P.S. I've known the young lady in the painting her entire life -- literally -- even to the point of being in the delivery room when she was born!