Friday, May 20, 2011

World War II Portrait: Painting Someone's Vision

A new commission is always exciting to me because I have the challenge of painting someone's vision that I adopt as my own. Plus, there is the story behind the painting which never fails to intrigue me. And so now I enter into the story of Hjalmer "Pete", the son of Swedish immigrants who settled in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This photo was taken in 1941 when he was drafted into the  U.S. army. My goal is to capture him on canvas using a black and white reference photo while transforming it into color. After lightly painting the composition in with a thin wash of oil paint, I am ready to begin. Stay tuned, this is going to be fun!

1 comment:

  1. Fascinating- I cannot wait to see how this comes to life...the form is already so interesting.

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