Blog 18
With Mother’s Day only two days away, I would
like to tell you a little bit about the story behind my 11” x 14”
acrylic painting “Mom”, portraying my mother at the age of a
young kindergarten girl. I painted this artwork for the Arteast
exhibition “Rearview Mirror” in 2005. It is one of few paintings
that I painted in black and white. I love colours and restricting my
palette was rather hard for me.
The photograph I used as a reference was taken
in the early 1940s. It was printed as a postcard for sending to
relatives. My mother wore a nice dress with a small print, possibly
flowers, white socks, ankle boots, and a big white bow in her hair.
It must have been hard for her to sit still for the photo session at
this young age. In another photo from the session, which I only saw
later, you see that her fists are balled even though she is smiling
at the camera.
My reference photo was rather sepia than black
and white. I am not sure if the photo always looked like this or if
the colour changed over the decades.
When I read the rules for the exhibition, I
immediately wanted to paint my mother’s portrait because the
exhibition theme “Rearview Mirror” resonated with me as a view
into the past. The old fashioned portrait was just perfect. I also
wanted to challenge myself as I had not painted many portraits before
and always felt that “they were not my thing”.
As I have not seen many other photos of my
mother as a child and did not have any others in my possession, I had
to rely on this sole photograph. Usually, I like to have a couple of
reference photos to take what is best out of them to create my
painting. I found it quite difficult to get the right shades so that
my mother looked natural even though I did not use a black from the
tube. Pure black is rather cold and better suited for abstract or
comic style paintings. I always mix different darks with Payne's
Grey, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine and Cobalt Blue, sometimes adding
Alizarin Crimson. At the end, I even added some Cadmium Red to add
just a touch of colour, hardly enough to make it a pink.
I know my mom really likes the painting, and I
am still happy with it after all these years. As for painting
portraits, I still find them very challenging and after one failed
attempt (not a bad painting but just not what the person expected)
will stick to portraits of family members. I need to know the
persons well to feel comfortable painting them, and to be able to
capture their character.
For all of you who are mothers, I wish you a
“Happy Mother’s Day”. If you are lucky like me to still have
your own mother in your life , I hope you will be able to spend a
couple of memorable hours together.
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