I painted this figurative work in December of 2021, on spec for a potential client (who ended up not buying it after a lot of hemming and hawing). It was from an old photo of the client’s aunt and uncle-in-law, and she wanted it “in the style of Michael Carson”; I tried my best, but I didn’t quite get it. But I did duplicate the heavy light/shadow contrast that he goes for in his paintings, and I also captured their likenesses fairly well, given that I was working from an old, slightly blurred, colorized black-and-white photo. It was unfortunate that I got them a little high on the canvas so that his head is cut off a little, and I got their heads a bit too large for their bodies, but hey—it was my first figurative portrait in acrylic on canvas with two people in it, so...there.
In the photo, the belt on her dress is covered in white fabric, and for three years that white belt has bugged me. I initially liked it as another light point other than their faces, but after the painting sat in my studio staring at me for a while, I ultimately felt the eye was drawn too much to this insignificant detail. So, when I wanted to do some painting today but felt defeated when I looked at starting a whole new work, I decided instead to fix the belt. I made it a color to recede a bit into the dress, and gave it a gold metallic belt buckle to go with the gold in other parts of the painting, and I think it fits in a lot better. I also used the opportunity to add a few extra gathers in the dress and some strategic bits of shadow here and there.I’m still sad the client didn’t like it, but maybe someday someone else will say, Hey, that looks like an old family portrait, it would go perfectly in my library! and I will sell it. Until then, Aunt Johnny and her George will keep staring down at me.
