pippaspaintings
Portraits  

The PORTRAITS ROOM - Here are examples of portraits done from live sittings, or photos or both. 

I welcome commissions. Prices include high quality materials and the cost of packing and postage within UK, and begin at £200 for a 30 x 40 cm head and shoulders in pastel on paper. The size, medium and complexity of composition of course determine individual prices. Painting is a process of continual re-assessment and correction to achieve the most truthful and life like effect one can. Of course one has to "know When to Stop", but I usually find that a work is not actually right the first I have "finished", and I must return to it three or four times between cooling off periods which allow objective scrutiny of faults. An ambitious picture takes several months. Then, oils need a notoriously long drying off time before the final varnish if such is desired. (Alternatively, the picture can depart in a light coat of re-touching varnish, to be varnished properly later.)
Ideally the making of a portrait is a shared project. In this photographic age the traditional series of live sittings is unnecessarily expensive in time and money, but it is nice to meet personally at your place or mine, to discuss ideas, allowing you to decide whether I'll be a sympathetic collaborator and me to appreciate something of your character and physical presence. I can make sketches and notes and take my own reference photos, avoiding later problems from ambiguous lighting conditions. However, time and distance are money..and there's Covid! I do work happily and successfully from clients' photographs. And we can SKYPE!! 

Please click on any image to enlarge it and get further information.

The Feast of Saint Hilda

Vicki

The Reader

Retired Hair Dresser

Baby Sih

Budding Scholar

Visitor from Yorkshire

Musical Greens

One and a Half

TOML

Great Auntie

Fatimah's Homework

Milla

Lead Alto

Butterfly Girl

Expat

Future Archaeologist

Sisters

Neighbourhood Watch

News Agent