Pastel Portraits

The tardy weekly portrait, Jill Parry

It's weeks since I posted a weekly portrait so I guess this is a sometimes portrait..

The Weekly Portrait; Aja, my daughter in law

I've been cheating on some of these weekly portraits, not all of them are new but I am planning an exhibition of portraits this year and now that the print making studio is done I can return to painting.
I have the portrait of Judy with Anthureums and a portrait of my son Eli to finish and two new portraits to begin, of two pals of mine, Andy and Tony so a busy week is in the tubes and brand new portraits, I hope, to post.

The weekly Portrait: Fiona at her wedding reception

Fiona is my niece and this soft ground etching is from a sketch I made of her on her wedding day.
I made this etching at a class I took as a refresher for my printmaking last year and now that I am creating a printmaking studio such things are coming to light.
It has been very stressful having the studio turned upside down and inside out but it will soon be ready and things I have had stashed away in storage for years now have a place and a purpose.
Like me! A place and a purpose! I like it, good way to start the day.

Judy's portrait was unfinished when I had an op on my hand

So Janice helped me get the press set up and I showed her how to create her first print, a dry-point etching on copper. She got the image from the goldfish pond. Below the result.

Two Powerful Women. The Poet and the Librarian

Two drawings of a poet reading, below, the likeness. Above, the essence...

 
A drawing of Janice reading her poetry at a cafe in Tauranga. One of her poems, an understated masterpiece of only 5 lines, can reduce grown Women to tears. That's Power my friend..

Under Kris's cool, calm, efficiently helpful and stikingly beautiful exterior beats the heart of a seriously competitive netball player.
Netball is an ultra fast, intense and somewhat dangerous extreme team sport played by thousands of New Zealand Women.
The Maori word for Power, and much else besides, is Mana. In Kris this is as obvious and tangible as her graphically gorgeous thick black hair, eyebrows and coolly lidded black eyes .....
I simply had to paint this Woman!
And you can bet I was respectful and polite with her..