Two years ago, I was editing for another fine art photographer and she had the desire to offer painted portraits to her clients. She too lives in the deep south, and to be forthright, painted family portraits are probably as “Southern” a tradition as there is. She looked at her work tempo, and said that at that time there was just no way she could work doing these paintings into her schedule. So…I was the next in line to learn. And I grabbed the opportunity! There are several fantastic portrait artists that do paintings well, but one of the things we had to do was find someone who was both willing and able to teach…and to do it at the time we had to learn.
As it turned out, one of her favorite portrait artists who was doing paintings was from my hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. Tim Walden and his lovely wife Beverly are renown for being phenomenal artists and very willing to teach. So, we reached out to them, and low-and-behold, Bev returned my call very quickly. She was willing to teach, and we found a time in short order wherein we were all available.
We packed our bags and headed north to the beautiful Bluegrass country. Tim and Bev were gracious hosts. We were given insight into their world of imagery, and specifically their “Beau Visage”, from beginning to end. They have a beautiful studio, and create lovely heirloom pieces.
How do we accomplish paintings for you? Well, it starts with photography. We work to capture amazing portraits…just like a normal shoot in that aspect. But, the development and post-production is a whole different process. Once the ideal image has been selected, we take the image and enhance various aspects of it to make it more “ideal” for painting. Then, we move it to a painting software, and begin the process of duplicating every tiny bit of the image into a painting. Some people ask “does your computer paint for you?” And, while there are programs that have actions that emulate painting, we don’t employ any of those. Every little bit is done by hand. Brush selection is purposeful and deliberate based on what we are painting. The brush we use on hair is different from the one we use on facial skin, is different from the one we would use on the eyes, is different…etc. Amazing as it may sound, even the pressure we use in painting on our stylus pad is reflected in the effect of the painting…just as though we were physically touching the canvas.
Once your painting is complete, we send the image to the lab where they carefully take it and place it on art canvas. It is cured and finished with an acrylic spray to protect it from the elements. Then it comes back to us, and we complete the work by adding brush strokes as a top layer to reflect the strokes that we made in the original painting. Then, it is framed and ready for your home or office. It’s a time consuming process, but one that is unique and creates an art piece that will become a family heirloom.
