Portrait of a Six Year Old
Looking through my photo library a month ago, I spotted a bleached out photo of my son Raven. In the photo, he was sitting near a window wearing a hat, possibly on his birthday. I had to enlarge the photo several times to see the detail in shaded areas. In the process of painting this portrait, I discovered how expressive eyes are and how difficult they are to paint.
Raven returned home from college and saw a less developed state of the painting and the first thing he said to me was, “Don’t tell anyone it is me, my skin looks funny.” I didn’t expect such a cold reception and I thought he would be honored.
His comment provided me an opportunity to revisit a difficult time in my life, to set straight, if only in my imagination, the order of events that occurred in the past. I painted my son because I like the composition and it is time to thaw a frozen area in my heart.
