Try something new

 Pugwash Flower People

Acrylic on canvas

24 x 24 inches

Barbara Muir © 2012

SOLD ♥

I’m an artist – fact of life.  As a portrait artist I am used

to meeting the client’s requests – but here was a new one.

About a month ago a friend in Pugwash expressed

an interest in my painting PugwashFlower Man, that

I showed in Studio Vogue Gallery last fall, and in the 

Don Valley Art Club Spring Show.  I called her up to 

confirm that she wanted it, and after saying yes, she asked,

 “can you put me in it?”  Maxine is my friend Ken Lander’s

 fiancée, and a major force in their flower business.

I ran downstairs to my studio holding the phone, stared

hard at the painting, and decided “Yes I can.”  Then the

fun began.  I’ve never actually done this before.  Oh I’ve

changed paintings – usually because I wanted to redo

an area, add more depth.  But add a person into a portrait

of one person?  Nope. Luckily in many photos of the couple

together, Maxine takes exactly this pose.

Challenges?  The trees and flowers that used to be in the

painting where Maxine now is, were painted with a palette knife –

thick and bumpy paint.  I took those off with sandpaper, and then

 rubbing alcohol to make a spot for Maxine.

The rest was not hard.  I would have put Maxine in in the

 first place, but I took the reference photos on my way out

 of Pugwash last year and she was away. 

The happy result for me, is that I like the painting

much better with her in it.  I was always fond of the painting, 

but now see there was someone missing.

And of course the best part of all was seeing the couple's

faces light up when I delivered the painting today.  They

loved it.  

Have a being-willing-to-change day.