A VERY SPECIAL COMMISSION

Deirdre Working 2  18x24" oil on canvas
Private Collection


This portrait, a favorite painting of mine to date, has happily provided me with another opportunity to feel rather pleased with myself! Sorry mom.

However, I also must give props to Mike Rynearson for one of the most incredible reference photos I've ever had the pleasure of working from. Drop by Mike and Deirdre's site and enjoy some of the most beautiful and moving photographs from around the world that I've ever seen.

The subject of the portrait is photographer Deirdre Hamill, daughter of famed author, newspaper editor and columnist, Pete Hamill, who, as history has it, was also a painter in the early days of his most illustrious career.  A few years back, on a long car trip to a wedding, I read Pete's memoir "A Drinking Life" to Tim while he manned the wheel. The book was an honest and unflinching look at his life to that point, and we both enjoyed it immensely.  

This second portrait I did of Deirdre was chosen as a Christmas gift to her father which he received last week. You can imagine how I felt waiting for his reaction. Would he be pleased? Would he "see" his offspring in my brushwork? Tense. I was tense!

However an email from Mr. Hamill himself soon put my fears to rest, big time!  I will treasure his words for the rest of my days!

And he was kind enough to allow me to use his FaceBook post about the painting for shameless self promotion, which incidentally, I am not above doing!

This commission will remain in my memory for some time to come! Thank you Mike, Deirdre and Pete!