[Jason de Graaf]

Thanks for extending such a warm welcome to me.

Joy, those links were just ones I thought of off the top of my head. There are many women painters I admire but who don't have websites to link to.

As you may have noticed I'm not a strict portrait painter, I love painting people but mainly I do it for myself since galleries are apprehensive of showing portraiture work, especially from unestablished painters like myself. And since I'm trying to establish myself in the gallery world, lately I've been concentrating on landscapes more.

I've had someone ask me to quote them a price for a painting of his family, but I quoted too high for him. I'm a little unsure of what a good baseline price is for portrait paintings based on size and the number of figures, etc.

As for working in acrylics...well I just find I can get the effects I want with that medium, so I don't necessarily find it an advantage or disadvantage but I have yet to try painting in oils so I really can't compare. I have a friend, also a painter, who's trying to cinvince me to switch to oils, he thinks my work would improve but I'm not so sure. I like the minimal clean up and lack of odour from acrylics. Basically I'm just comfortable with acrylics because it's what I know.

Thanks again and I look forward to hearing what everyone here thinks and seeing more great portraiture!