american portrait artist

Portrait reveal

by

Meredith, Olivia and Emile. Aren’t they lovely? I’m really excited about how this portrait came out. I think their affection is apparent, as well as their likeness.

The collector loved the painting from the photos I sent, but I’m waiting anxiously to hear how it was received in person (I do that every time I ship a painting!). Some of my paintings look just as good in a photo, but some – maybe most (like this one) have a luminous quality, and some subtlety, that I think makes them better in person.

A portrait of three people takes me a little more than three times as long to paint thank a painting of one person. There’s the obvious challenge of getting each portrait correct, with the added challenge of getting the portraits to work well together.

 

Thanks so much, Manny, for being a collector! I hope your painting brings your family joy.

Christmas Portrait time; Mom and daughter portrait in progress

by

Hi! I’ve been posting a fair number of landscape paintings lately, but I’m still an American portrait artist.

Painting in progress

american portrait artist mom child

I’m in the mid-phase of this large mom and daughter portrait painting. The expressions are worked out, and now comes the finesse, the paint marks, the decisions about how to support the relationship with the colors and marks, and interest between smooth gradations and bold marks, and little details that will make the painting special.

This family is my Monday modeling family. I have been wanting to try my hand at a larger portrait than I’d painted before. This one is 22″ x 30″. I think it will turn out quite nicely!

Portraits as gifts

Call soon if you are interested in a portrait to give your spouse as a Christmas gift.

How to choose an artist? What I want most is for you to have artwork that you love. So choose an artist whose paintings make your heart sing. If that’s me, that is wonderful!

When to call? If you’re thinking about commissioning a portrait by an American Portrait Artist as a Christmas gift, it’s time to contact an artist! Depending on how quickly the artist paints, and how many commissions they’re working on, they may need many months.

I generally need about a month for a small to mid-size painting, and a couple months for larger paintings. That gives time to live with design ideas for a little while before the best one becomes apparent, painting, and drying and delivery / shipping time. In an “emergency” I have delivered in a small painting in a week (that was actually pretty fun!), but in general more time is necessary.

Are you a local person interested in a “portrait sketch”?

I’ve been thinking about doing some quicker portrait sketches. This would be for folks that want a portrait but either enjoy a loose sketch, or don’t have the budget for a fully rendered portrait. It would involve sitting in my studio for about two hours, and the price… I haven’t settled on yet. Call or email if you’d like more info.

My goal is to bring joy to the world through art.

A Well Pressed Shirt, portrait of working man

by

portrait painting, by Rasche
I am feeling very inspired to paint more of this sort of portrait – of people doing their thing. If you’re a local business owner, and it would be OK for me to come out and take pictures (or paint on site) of you or your staff cooking, tending the till, feeding cows, constructing a house… anything like that… call or send me an email.  

(This portrait painting is almost done with it’s museum tour!)

Portrait, revealed.

by

Here is the portrait of Julia and Emily. Such a lovely family! This family has purchased several portraits over the last several years, and I feel like I know (and appreciate) them.

This mom and daughter are in the same spot on the beach that I painted the mom with her son on when he was a baby…

I recorded the painting process… bits and pieces of it anyways. I may get that uploaded, if there’s interest.

Thanks for looking!

Portrait is complete and beautiful, what’s next?

by

I wish I could post a picture now, but this last portrait is a surprise gift… I’m very excited about how it turned out! I can’t wait to show you all.

I was so anxious waiting to hear back from the collector… But this morning I got the “It looks great!!!” Yay, I love that. Thank you collector.

Now that the painting is ready to ship, I have some time before my next commission will start. If you know anyone who is interested in a portrait, please share my information with them.

For the last 9 years, I’ve gradually come to the point where there’s no difference in how long a portrait takes me for sizes under 11×14″. And you’d think they go faster and faster as I get more experienced, but it’s sort of the opposite. The more I know, the higher my expectations get, and the more nuanced my paintings are.

The difference between 11×14 and 16×20 is the first jump in size where the larger painting takes more planning and time to complete… I’m planning to do something with that information, but I’m not sure what…

Call to schedule your portrait project.

Her Garden, portrait combining different reference photos

by

This portrait was a Christmas gift for a lovely woman, so I waited until after it was given to show it to you… Augusta’s daughter wanted a painting of Augusta in her garden (which I had seen several photos of on Facebook, and it is … glorious). She sent me some photos of Augusta outside, and some different photos of her amazing garden. I wanted to paint Augusta sensitively, but her garden thick and painterly, and to have it all work together. I’m excited about how it came together.

Thanks for looking.

My Friend, commissioned painting

by

This is one of the most challenging paintings I’ve done, because it’s very conceptual. My son’s programming mentor was interested in a painting that will remind him of a crow that was a childhood friend, and which would talk to him from the barn roof.

I ended up making a painting that looks fairly simple, but there is a lot of texture in the sky and barn peak, and getting the expression to read just right was quite a challenge. Today I sent him the final picture, and he loves it, for which I am very glad!

So many ideas for abstract paintings came to me while I was working on this painting. I want to do many more birds (and have been taking photos of the crows that winter over here), as well as some paintings about texture and color.

Thank you for looking!