Painting New Orleans Blog

Painting the Next Generation-

There is a long tradition of artists painting their children. My great grandfather was an artist and sketched my grandmother when she was a toddler.  My wife  recently had a baby girl and at just one month old, our daughter  is already the subject of many sketches.    We have lots of photographs of my children but it is nice to have another trick up my sleeve in order to capture expressions and character.  Here is my wife's favorite sketch so far,

My son has made his way into quite a few of my paintings.  After taking him to Audubon Park and the Sophie Newcomb fountain, which is surrounded by flowers, I was inspired to create the  painting below.  We still have the blue striped blanket that is draped over the car seat.

Last year I painted a sunflower that had sentimental value for a collector of my work. The sunflower painting reminded them of a  photograph of their firstborn son smiling surrounded by tall sunflowers as a cute little toddler.  Their son is now entering his second year of college.  The beautiful image they shared with me inspired me to paint my own son surrounded by sunflowers. 

It can be challenging to paint close family members and to capture the expressions on their face and the light in their eyes. Technically speaking it is  bit harder to paint children because they have less sharply defined features.  Here is my four year old attempting to capture the specific features of my daughter in a drawing-

I am by no means a professional portrait painter but I think if you do it with love it comes out right in the end. 

Thanks For Reading,

Adam Hall

[email protected]