Click on any of the thumbnails for a full size sample!

The “early American” period of interior decoration is a wonderfully warm and friendly one, and characterized by what are called Naif or naïve portraits. These were often done by itinerant artists who traveled (in good weather) from town to town painting fairly quickly and inexpensively for the growing middle classes of the federalist period. These “plain painters” also painted signs and coaches and whatever else was required of them, including post mortem portraits, as well as the many charming and expressive paintings they left behind. What they lacked in training, they often made up for in style, and I enjoy reproducing their homey looks- especially when putting in the faces of modern people in traditional clothing and poses. (Why put a reproduction of a painting of someone you don’t know on the wall, when you can have one of your family in an original painting for the same cost?)

These do work best from life, but the naïf style can be done with only a few hours of sitting (for which I will travel to most places in New England), and I can finish the painting up without the subject- usually withing a week).

I do other portraits in other styles as required of course. I love painting reinactors in their kit or costume, and remind people that while they may feel that they don’t look as well as they used to- they will only get older, so they may as well have me paint them now.

I can do the initial work from photographs- but if it’s a typical snap-shot, it won’t make a satisfying transition to a period portrait. For one thing, painted portraits almost never had large smiles which are easily captured with photographs, but a painting showed a pose that could be kept for hours, so the faces were generally more serious.I can combine several people into one painting, but not if the light is coming from different directions on the different faces. I have a instruction page for taking the photos for using as sources for a painting which includes notes on poses, lighting etc. These can be sent by e-mail.

I also do portraits of pets, (cats, dogs, horses, etc.) but I don’t do houses. This may seem funny, but I can’t draw a straight line (only curved ones).