I volunteered a few months ago to do a drawing of the first Mother Superior for the Congregation of St. Joseph (my place of employment). Mother St. George came from France to begin a convent in Cleveland in 1875. I believe this picture was probably taken in the 1910's. It is the only pic the convent has of her. Needless to say, they have always been disappointed that the only picture of their founder on record is so . . . well . . . miserable! Over the past 100 years a few sisters have done pencil portraits . . . and they weren't any better.
So I decided, for the fun of it, to have a go at it. I presented this to Sr. June this week. Sr. June is the congregation's archivist. She loves it. The current Team (they have a team now, instead of Mother Superiors) member told me yesterday they love the portrait and it is pursuading them to name the new CSJ Center (A HUGE project underway) the Bradley Center, after Mother St. George (Bradley). If this is the case they want to make a portrait of her the centerpiece. I would do a more formal and larger portrait . . .
My challenge in doing this portrait was to try to keep it "her" but make her more pleasant looking. If you study the photograph you will see that she has a very asymmetrical face, her eyes are set very crooked, her nose is "out of joint" and even the corners of her mouth do not line up as in a typical symmetrical face. I felt I had to keep this "crooked" look to keep her likeness. I would be interested in opinions. Maybe I should have "straightened out her features??
This was fun, and a great little project to get me out of my artist's block. Who knows, maybe something will come from this for me. I could be the latest "Portrait Artist of the Convents" (however, I did see Beth's Painting of a CSJ - she will get the title way before I could!!! Nice painting, Beth
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Enjoy
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