Nadia, 14x18, oil on linen, portrait of Nadia, women with earrings, impressionist portrait

"Nadia", 14x 18, oil on linen

I started this portrait over a year ago, and once again I have found that it's best to never give up on a painting, just give it some time to percolate a bit as your skills and courage improve.

I have gained some confidence recently , thanks to painting workshops with David Leffel and Jon Greeley, so I decided to take Nadia out of the closet and finish her last night, in an attempt to relax after what was truly a trying day that had nothing to do with art!

Last spring I took a three day portrait workshop with Julie Hanson. In addition to being a fabulous colorist, Julie was once a sculptor and her relief sculpture, "Morning", won the prestigious Salmagundi Club award from the Pen & Brush in New York City. In that workshop, Julie taught me a great deal about the structure of a face, and afterwards invited me to paint for a few weeks along with a small group of portrait painters who would meet at a home in Sarasota once a week. Nadia was one of the models we painted from, and although she was new to modeling and changed position quite a bit as we struggled to paint her, she made a striking figure with her distinctive Spanish and Romanian features, which included abundant lips and Mediterranean skin coloring.

Here are the steps that I went through to get to the finished product:

This was the initial rough-in.

This was as far as I got before I decided to put her in the closet.

The final version. Don't be surprised if I put her in the closet and take her out again a year from now!