“Spirit of Fire” – a portrait of Rebecca. This recently commissioned piece is the sister portrait of “Portrait of a dancer - Jane” (completed in 2016). Rebecca’s portrait hangs next to her sister’s in the family’s home. The painting was based on Rebecca’s concert photo taken by Tom Baker (photographer) ten years ago. The small photo lacked facial detail, so I contacted Tom, who very kindly scanned the negative and sent it to me. In order to capture Rebecca’s character more accurately, I asked her to sit for a sketching and photo session. I found Rebecca’s character intriguing as we conversed during our sitting. She is calm and controlled on the outside, yet every now and then there was a spark of an underlying fiery personality. I included fluttering gold fabric as external evidence of this aspect to her. The finished portrait is a culmination of the original photo plus the sketches and photos from our session, as well as a new background.
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