In January 2012 in Cancun, Mexico, I stood talking with a family from the north woods of Hayward, Wisconsin. I asked Ted, Natalie’s father, if I could photograph her for a painting. After viewing my artwork online, he was enthusiastic about the project. With his help and with a very limited window of time before the sun set, I took dozens of photos. Natalie’s face and features reflect classic beauty, as do even her elbows! It was an inspiring photo shoot. Her selection of jewelry and apparel express her creativity. The beaded circle on the dress was particularly engrossing, and as I painted it, I developed its fine texture and brilliant color. Her dress was a coral pink, but I felt painting it in lavender, which was a subtle color hidden in the stream of falling water behind her, would be a better choice.
The fountain was in front of the resort, and I had only one hour before the bus would arrive to take my wife and me back to the airport. Freezing the flow of water with my camera was a challenge, but the flow and splash of the water is in sync with the flow and wave of Natalie's hair. I found such a relationship to be amazing! The fine quality of her hair and the sharp, delicate tips of the tropical plants are also parallel and poetic.
I developed the painting in the foyer of our local library where I was putting on a one-artist exhibit. During the month of March, I worked for 31 consecutive days, twelve hours per day, except for Sundays, which were shorter. While this schedule was extremely demanding, the challenge of perfecting this portrait motivated my dedication. As every visitor opened the automatic doors, in came a gust of March chill. Ted and Natalie followed my progress online as newspapers covered this public studio event.
The painting of the coral was impossibly complex. It was accomplished with an extreme amount of concentration, despite a steady flow of onlookers. One interesting note is that I never use brown paint, neither umbers nor sienas, in my paintings because these pigments tend to crack and dry too rapidly. I mix all the brown tones that you see in this and my other paintings with basic colors that are far more permanent.