What Do You Do with Really Bad Photos?

This happens a lot. Someone dies and their brother (or mother, or cousin, or son etc.) realizes there are no good photos of them. Not one! They might be going through albums or cell phone pictures searching for photos to put up on the slide show that has recently become obligatory at most funerals.

"Omigosh!" They exclaim. "There is not one good photo of Uncle Fred."

Then Fred's daughter decides she wants a good photo or something to hang on her wall to keep his memory alive. She finds a bad photo and brings it to me and asks if I might be able to create a good painting using it as a reference.

At this point I should offer a firm "NO!"

But I don't. I tell the relative I can create a painting, but it will not be much better that the photo. However, I can make it impressionistic. For some reason an impressionistic portrait is better than a blurry photo when you hang them side by side on the wall. Or so they tell me.

8" x 10" oil on canvas

Mr. Evans