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Originally Posted by Michele Rushworth
Garth, I wanted to ask you a question about your choice of background. It seems so informal and like a genuine slice of her life. I asume this was a conscious choice. Was it something you, the subject or the people who commissioned it asked for? It's so different from the formal, or at least, highly "arranged" backgrounds I see in almost all other commissioned portraits.
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Hi Michele,
Actually the background was not much discussed with the client. I simply painted what was already there. Some of the item happened to have much personal significance to the client, so it was satisfying that they were included in an incidental way. All that was changed from the reference image was Jane's ring on her finger, and the removal of my totally incongruent Gitzo tripod, which was lurking uninvited in the background.
Here is the photo reference, and the painting beneath. So you can see I took the easy route and just painted what was there. I liked the composition from the beginning, so I just left it alone.
Garth