Barbara Pure & Lovely

My own mother asked me to paint her portrait "before she got too old"---she's 83! I wanted to capture the sun through her amazing hair and asked her to sit for me at a specific time of day when the sun was behind her. She was very excited to be my model and we played with different poses and expressions as I (luckily) snapped some photos. When I started in to paint, I asked her politely to hold a position that really sung to me. But my mother found it impossible to hold the least bit still---or to stop talking constantly! LOL. We had a lovely time for a while as she relayed story after story of her childhood and siblings, but I finally had to surrender to her fidgety-ness and call it a day. I worked from photos to complete the painting. I later added the white lilies as a symbol of her pure, joyful, and youthful spirit.