Finished in a double sense

The portraits of Erik and Sofi are finished. I painted the back of Erik’s painting red and Sofi’s blue. If they are hung with spotlights above, the shadow behind each painting has a touch of red and blue… a very subtle effect.

I also added two layers of varnish to give the paintings a bit of a classic touch. It has been a partly agonizing process to make these paintings, but now I am satisfied. The parents are also very happy, which is important for me, since their children mean a lot to them. Maybe that influenced my feeling of responsibility when I started working on them.

A friend came by today and immediately fell in love with these paintings. One reason he liked them so much was also the size – 20×16 cm. Anybody has room for such small paintings, was his comment. He also started thinking out loud and wondered about if smaller paintings necessarily should be less expensive than large works? That is the norm, but in many cases a small painting does not mean less work and the result may also be just as good. To me it makes sense and I think I will practise a different pricing in the future. I will also raise my prices for portraits, as I “fear” that I will have more requests for portraits – I don’t mind doing them, but I don’t want to do too many either. But it has been very much fun to work in a dialogue with the clients, letting them be part of the creative process.