It's a nice painting, Lisa, I like it.
There's only one problem I see with it: the focal point is the bottom of the painting, because you have the strongest contrasts there, and the red urn adds a sort of optic red which gives even more intensity on this part.
If you want to have the focal point on the head, you should have the strongest contrasts there : the darkest background, the whitest whites, maybe some few crisp edges. And then you could add much lower contrasts at the bottom of the painting, have some very lost edges at the bottom of the dress, and tone down the urn.
Maybe it's possible to equilibrate the urn with some optical red near the head, where your whitest white meet your darkest darks.
There is an interrested thread about optical red here:
http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...ht=optical+red
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