Slow Progress

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Here is the progress so far on the portrait of Anne.  I worked on her clasped hands which are in a strong focal point in the composition.  I'm not happy with them and they will need repainting, however it gives me something to relate everything else to.




I also have started to establish the chair itself.  I worked on it when she wasn't there. Just a couple of pillows and her fluorescent orange crocs..!  I am always conscious of wasting peoples time, just sitting for my benefit. Painting from life always seems such a self indulgent activity in many ways.  I read somewhere that the American figurative painter Phillip Pearlstein insists that his models are sitting there even when he's painting the furniture... but that seems a bit excessive to me.  Sometimes I wonder if you perhaps have to be a bit of a sadist to paint people from life.  Bowls of apples don't make me feel so guilty.




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