Wedding Couple Portrait Painting

Dear Art Lover,

Wedding portrait painting Detail Groom

     So, back in October or November, I posted some images and gave you a description of a challenging project that I had to do. It was requested that I paint a portrait of a couple who are getting married next month. The bride's favorite color is hot pink. The groom wanted his favorite sports teams of the Denver Broncos included (colors are bright orange and navy blue, with a horse symbol) and a crucifix, not just a cross. She wanted the painting done in the style of Seurat... lots of dots and a high key painting (meaning few real dark tones). And of course, none of the photos that I received were the favorite of both of them in the same shot and I could not work from life with the ocean between us. 

     I have received permission from the couple to share the images here of the finished portrait. Meet my sister Danielle and her future husband Joe. So, this past weekend was Danielle's Bridal Shower. Because I was told back in December that I required surgery on my knee [with a six-month recovery time], I had given up the plan to attend the wedding in the US. So back in early January 2017, I shipped the painting secretly to our mother. It was still wet, but I had to go all the way to Firenze, Italia, anyway to ship another painting that I had sold. The packaging was great [Thanks, MBE-Firenze] and the painting arrived safely to the US and surprisingly stayed a secret! Recently, our mother (an artist as well) stretched the painting for me and the groom's grandmother bought the frame. Two of these images are from the shower this past weekend. The others I took here in Italy before shipping the art.  

     I should note that I did not pull off the Seurat look.  Part of that is because a portrait artist has to learn to read feedback from the commissioning client.  People do not always say exactly what you need to hear to do what the speaker wants.  My feel on the feedback that I got was that more realism was desired than what I see in Seurat.  Also, the original comment was, “I really love the lady with the big butt by Monet.”  I could not think of or find a big butt by Monet, but of course, I remember the famous profile of the woman in the park wearing a Victorian-style dress with the added butt poof.  Hahah.  So, I read my sister’s comment as that she likes the high-key color palette and that she enjoys seeing choppy paint strokes.  And I am very happy that she and her future husband love the painting.

     Also... the doctors gave me alternative therapies, so I am preparing to attend my sister's wedding after all. Sweet reunion with my family!

Wedding Portrait Painting, Detail Bride

Art Workshop in Tuscany

    On another note:  Are you interested in traveling to Tuscany, Italy, to take some art lessons?  I have been asked to teach again and we thought this time to try it in the hills, close to my home.  If we get enough feedback, we might try for a workshop in September or October.  I have taught all sorts of things including pastels, charcoal drawing, still life painting, portraits, anatomy, stone carving, and more.  The landscape is lovely here and one idea is to do more of an artist’s retreat.. More painting time, afternoon critiques.. But even if I teach full-time, we are thinking of a small group.. six maximum?  I am open to shaping the class to what YOU want to work on, so please send me your desires about what you want to learn about art.  The location is between Firenze (Florence) and Lucca / Pisa.  If you see my posts on Facebook, you may have a better idea of the landscape and beauty to which I am referring.

Art workshop in Tuscany Italy - send your requests for what to learn

     If you like, please have a look at some of my sculpture online here:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture.htm

Peace,

Kelly

P.S.  Subscribe to the art newsletter here (it is FREE):  http://www.borsheimarts.com/contact.htm

Trip Highlights

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Ten days on the road. It was a whirlwind trip, fitting visits into short time frames with family and old friends that I had not seen in years. I also met many new friends. Here are some of the highlights since I last wrote:

1) This is an image of the oil painting I created for Amber and Alex Babcock’s wedding portrait. My sister Amber’s favorite artist is Alphonse Mucha, so I painted an 18” x 24” composition in a style similar to Mucha’s. They exhibited the portrait during their wedding reception this month. I hope that you enjoy it as much as they did.



2) In the midst of the wedding festivities, I was elated to receive an e-mail that my pastel painting ”Il Mimo - Firenze, Italia” became a finalist an the online competition for paintings. See all of the FineArtViews Painting Competition Winners (September 2009)

3) After Florida, I went to North Carolina and was totally charmed by my new friends in Raleigh. The Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild and long-time Internet friend and artist Jeanne Rhea invited me to speak about my life as a madonnari (Italian street painter) and do they all know how to make an artist feel welcome! I toured the gallery at Artspace, enjoying a variety of styles and media, and even recognizing one artist, Linda Ruth Dickinson, whose paintings I had first seen from my visit to a gallery in Houston, Texas, a couple of years ago. Here is an image taken with the audience that remained after my talk for a bit of mingling and munching. After my presentation, Penny (the tall woman in the center) gave me a lovely gift bag full of exotic chocolates. How yummy is that?




4) Jeanne and her husband Vince offered their home for the night, which was great. I want to share images of her studio with you. Seriously, this is THE most organized studio I have ever seen. No way that this was a “clean up for guests” kind of organized. I am still impressed. Jeanne said that she works with too many materials to NOT be organized. I must admit that I was a bit envious of her antique drawers. I have been hoping to find something like this for my Italian drawing papers. This would be much safer and cleaner than keeping the papers on the futon in my office!

Another image here depicts Jeanne while she showed me some test samples of her latest experiments with pigments. Visit her Web site or blog for updates - Jeanne is always exploring. The colors in her artworks are so much richer than anything you will see in photographs. Enjoy. Next time, I report on Florence, Italy . . .

October is National Arts and Humanities Month