*
 

*

Sharon,

It's a vision! It's so different than most traditional portraiture..... so very lovely and memorable!

Christy

I agree--and she looks like she's about to walk right out of the vision toward the viewer. I love the juxapposition of the very realistic, convincing illusion (wow, those skin tones! the translucent blouse!) and the dreamlike, visionary quality of the space she occupies. She is so alive, so much a teenager of today that there will never be any mistaking the time period in which you painted this. Your dreamlike space is also convincing, but thankfully not sweet and sentimental. It is simple and strong. I'm very, very impressed by how you pulled this off, Sharon!

It's lovely, Sharon. It looks so effortlessly done, and it is so beautifully composed. There is such a clarity of light and colour, it has such an elegance to it, and there is such good depth to the space. Very nice work indeed!

No wonder you were having trouble with that blouse! It turned out beautiful though and the whole painting reminds me of a 20th century adaptation of a 18th century painting by Thomas Gainsborough "Blue Boy". So alive and glowing with color. Very nice!

Sharon, another sincere congrats. I love the way you have incorporated your favorite colors. Makes for a grate painting. Grate control in color/value.

My sincere and all the best to you

Mischa,

Thank-you for the compliments on the color. I added wax medium to the subsequent layers of the blue. It makes the paint layers quite translucent and lovely.

Enzie,

How prescient of you! I had both Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" And Lawrence's "Pinkie" on my computer to refer to. They were in fact my inspirations. The painting is now as we speak in a lovely 18th Beacon Hill town House in Boston.

Sharon,
Congratulations on this very elegant piece. Love the blues and how the other colours complement it. I

Now I see.

Thanks.

Carlos,

Don't feel unschooled and ignorant. I just figured out how to do this this last year and I am, I blush, a bit older that you.

Have you ever noticed the translucency of wax candles? They have a subtle glow. Layering with slightly different colors of paint in the wax medium gives depth and lustre to your paint. It is wonderful for passages that you want to keep from being to shiny. I also decided that her blouse at one point was a bit busy, so I added some wax to a creamy white and simplified some areas.

I use www.studioproducts.com wax medium, but you can use Dorlands. You can add from 10%-20% wax medium to your color. I use it also to bring up color like a retouch varnish. One caveat, you cannot varnish the painting. A very good curator gave me this tip.

I first became aware of the beauty of encaustic painting years ago. I saw some, the paintings were awful, but the colors were transcendent.

This is on on traditional linen on stretchers.

My next piece will be on linen on aluminum honeycomb.

Sharon, what a wonderful light, and I find this piece really holds up as a painting as much as a portrait.
Ilaria

Lovely, Sharon!

Illaria, Julie,

Thank-you.

I was lucky to have wonderful clients that made this possible!

Sharon, this is so lovely - it's such a dreamlike and lushly wistful painting. I wish I'd painted it. (I'm a big Lawrence fan too and yes, I also can see that Pinkie influence. Well done!) Such edible candy coloring!

You're such an inspiration to me in your life work! I finally got that bendable Flexikid (stand sold seperately).

Sharon,
They say that every painting is a self portrait. When seeing it in the golden frame I see that it is right, she's your inner rococo girl in blue jeans. I like it.

I have also used the wax medium, I made it my self by heating linseed oil, litharge and beeswax.

My recipe is called The Rubens Medium.

Just beautiful, Sharon, and very "Pinkie"!

I've enjoyed seeing the work in progress and now your masterful finish. Thanks for sharing it all with us.

Distinctly Knettell
 

A very recognizable Sharon Knettell! Forget Klimt, I love your paintings more than his work...

Been working like mad on a painting...hence, out of the loop.

This is beautiful as always Sharon. I always love your inimitable color, but this time I'm quite taken with the low-ish angle of the light and what it does playing across her features.

(Thanks also for the pic of the dummy. It's a great aid, obviously.

Another masterpiece!

Best--TE

I love seeing the close - up !! There is SO much to be said about surface quality, and impossible to see in any other way (well of course, unless we could see the original.But then we'd have to travel , un-glass pastels, and get ladders.)

Thanks, how about some more?

Thanks for the closeup, Sharon. It's always helpful. (You can tell which people are the artists in a museum because we're the ones with our noses an inch from the paintings!)

Oh, this is so nice. Refined blending along with some bravura brushwork. Now I'm even more impressed!

Sharon you have guts! Love to see portraiture from life. Cheery and airy. Also very modern.
Chris Kolupski

EXQUISITE closeups, Sharon! The color, the brushstrokes, and that curl of hair on the last one--WOW! I'd like to see it in person sometime.