The past few months I have traveled a bit and worked on a personal project Faces, which I will blog about when it's all finished. But I also had the pleasure of creating a large commission for a client. I was given full control for the subject and a little nudge of what colors and themes the client liked. I have a backlog of public domain photos stored away for rainy days, photos I would like to someday turn into paintings and this photo just called to my clients wishes.
The portrait of Henri Groulux with his chicken, cir. 1920 was taken in a Parisian studio. I attempted to do research on how this photo came about but found very little, so I created my own backstory. This also aided my idea to do a mixed media piece and create a background of newspaper clippings about the circus, Charlie Chaplin and even some articles about the writer Proust. This painting turned out to be 75 x 75 cm in acrylic paint on canvas. I am happy with the end result as is the client!
