What a Photographer's Eye Sees and the Hand of a Painter Translates

 

I have been doing portraiture work in the past months and did not have the opportunity for sculpting/painting.  With the start of spring and inspired by one of the portraits I did, the urge to celebrate the moment with colours took me away, for a short while, from B&W photography and my darkroom.

 

As with most of my paintings, I started with preserved wild rabbit hide. Here is the furry side

 

And the hide ready to be painted with initial pencil outline

 

The shape of this “canvas” was challenging, along with the surface of the hide. Of course, that adds character and makes every work unique.

Then it started taking shape with a soft look

 

The challenge was working with and around the imperfections. For this painting, I opted for face painting from the Southwestern tradition

 

And then, I let my imagination fly high with moth and butterfly wings, crow feathers and alternating oil and acrylic paint with water colour.

The end product is shown atop this page.

If I showed my rendition to the person who posed for a portrait, what will her reaction be?

April 30, 2023

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2023