Over the Christmas period I was working on a portrait for my husband’s grandmother’s 100th Birthday. The portrait was to be of his grandfather, her late husband, who passed away 6 years ago, after a long and happy marriage of 60 years.
I took it from a series of photographs that the family collected together for me. I wanted to capture the spirit and essence of him as a person and a pose most typical of him.
Due to the nature of the gift, I was nervous that I might not have captured his spirit, but the family were all in agreement, as was she, that I had.
It was truly rewarding watching her studying his face and seeing that it brought joy to her. It is something I would love to do more of; the chance to try to immortalise a person. A painting of a person somehow feels more real in the flesh than a photograph. I will treasure this image of her cradling the painting and the look on her face.