Hannah's First Haircut

This painting was a gift to my boss for Christmas. His wife took it as their little girl was getting her very first haircut at age three. Right away he showed it to me and asked didn't I think this was a great photo and wouldn't it make a great painting? He was right. Something about the composition and the angle it was taken at seemed to make the child almost iconic. Her wispy blond hair and brave little face were a great subject. I cropped the photo and made Hannah the center of attention literally and figuratively.

I used an ultramarine blue wash under the paint and the Andres Zorn palette of red, black, yellow ochre and white.

8" x 8" oil on canvas

Hannah's First Haircut

The Back Up Painting

Do you have a painting that you keep in the studio to work on whenever you have a few moments? I usually do. I know that I need a minimum of one hour to paint a small 6" x 6" panel and I don't always have an hour to spare. Usually I find myself with 20-30 minutes of time before I have to go to work or an exercise class or the store... whatever. Once in awhile I am just not tired enough to go to bed but I don't want to start something "new" late at night. When I have short blocks of time like this I turn to my 'back up painting'. This is usually an experimental piece that needs to be worked on in layers or a piece that has been sitting around for a long time and needs more 'interest'.

The past few weeks this piece has been Hannah, a 9" x 12" portrait piece that I initially started to explore the Anders Zorn palette. Zorn was a 19th century Swedish painter who became famous for his ability to create stunning alla prima portraits. It's said that he used a very limited palette of White, Yellow Ocher, Cadmium Red and Ivory Black. I've looked at a number of his portraits and I definitely see hues of green that would be impossible without a blue but I wanted to give it a try anyway.

Here is a painting of Grover Cleveland by Zorn and you can see he was a master of brushwork and gesture. Cleveland was a huge buy but Zorn somehow managed to position him in a manner that minimizes that fact.


Here is Hannah in the early stage of the painting when I used just the Zorn palette to bring her to life. I liked the warmth and natural color harmony of the piece but the photograph showed a green scarf and it was impossible to achieve that brighter hue of green without adding blue.

 Below is a picture of the painting after I glazed some green (mixed with ultramarine blue and yellow ocher) over the scarf. I also mixed some alizarin crimson with blue to change the color of the coat. So while I think Zorn's palette is wonderful for flesh tones I miss the additional colors needed to paint fabric and if I were painting something outside I would REALLY miss by blue.