Mayor & Daughter
 

This is another in the mayor series; each year a municipal official is selected as Mayor of the Year by the New Jersey Conference of Mayors and is memorialized with a portrait. This is the mayor of a rural township, and he's the proud owner of a horse farm graced by a very pretty daughter. The painting is 30x24 and in oil. I've included the full image and a detail.

Leslie,

I think this is one of your best paintings so far. Each part is very well rendered and hangs together quite well. You really nailed the values in the man's leather vest. Good job!

Do you get the Mayor of the Year commission every year?

Thanks, David! I have to admit that I was wondering why no one reacted to this one. Nice to hear that you like it. Yes, I get the Mayor of the Year commission annually. The first time this happened they were honoring the governor, who had been mayor of Woodbridge, NJ before his election. The director of the organization had had me create portraits for another occasion and also commissioned one of his daughter. I assume that when he was casting about for a special way to honor these awardees he decided to have me do the portraits, since I live nearby and it was easy for him to work with me.

This is my fourth one and I enjoyed it. I don't always get to take the reference photos but in this case I did. Last year the honoree was Albio Sires, the Speaker of the State Assembly, and it was to be a surprise so I had to scramble for some good photos. I actually found the ones I used on the web (although we did, of course, get permission from the photographers), and then I borrowed some photos from the director to fill in the background of the golf scene.