Well, here is a portrait that I have worked on for a couple of years. This is what it looked like about a year to a year-and-a-half ago: I started with a tinted-gesso ground, using burnt umber acrylic paint mixed into the gesso. As you can see, the technique is to develop the highlights and shadows from the tinted ground using only burnt umber and white, and then to add color as one of the last steps.

I am calling it: "Mater ut musa (Portrait of the artist's mother as a young woman)." I painted it from a photograph, which I believe was taken ca. 1977. The photo was taken at an outdoor festival in Oklahoma, during the summer. She was sitting in the bright sun, which was picked up by the ribbon on the hat. I didn't want to include people from the crowd, which surrounded her in the photo.

To focus more attention on the figure I decided to make the background dark. Also, to keep the background from being too flat, I decided to make it mottled. One thing led to another, and now it looks almost like a cloudy night scene. Oh, well! I briefly considered adding a bit of moon peeping over the "clouds," but this wouldn't agree with the lighting on the figure, so I decided against it.

I'm giving it to her in a few days. I hope that she appreciates it.