Kindrid Spirit

Kindred Spirit 14 X 11 Original Oil on Panel

It didn't take me very long to realize that it was going to be asking a lot for some people for sit for four hours. Now, of course that doesn't mean that I literally asked folks to sit still for that time; we take as many breaks as needed to keep the experience comfortable and pleasant. Still for some people it was clearly more pleasant than others.

Wanting the experience to be collaborative and fun for the sitter, I decided to tweak my approach. I began taking lots of references photos early on and working like a demon during the first hour and a half to block in the big shapes and make color notes. When eyes began to glaze over and people looked like they would rather be somewhere else, I let them go and finished from the photo as quickly as possible.

Not so with Kathy. We enjoyed getting to know one another so much that five hours flew by before we knew it. These are the creative moments I live for, when I am so immersed in my project that I lose all sense of time. Adding another person to the mix makes the experience so much richer. I am continually surprised by how much I find in common with a person who starts the sitting as a stranger and finishes as a friend.

Kathy is a remarkably creative woman; she paints in acrylics, arranges flowers, takes stunning photographs and is a gifted and resourceful interior designer. Better still, she loves to share her gifts and often arranges flowers for events on Dewees Island.  Her ideas for the flowers for my show at the owners meeting blew my mind. This is a woman who doesn't do anything half way! I had the pleasure of being invited to her home for dinner. As you might expect, she is a fabulous cook as well!