Sophie at Fifteen

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Oil Pastel and Mechanical Pencil on Gray gesso-primed canvas, 4" square

This is a picture of my daughter when she was about 15, I think. I have

done a lot of paintings and drawings of her, and she always looked very

sophisticated beyond her years. I like this image because she looks more

her age, and also displays her "lost-in-thought" character.

I have a large set of Sennelier oil pastels - well two really. One, I put

together little by little over the years as I could afford them, and it also

includes Holbein and Caran d'Ache oil pastels. Except for the Holbeins,

which are square, I keep them sharpened to a point with a large-hole

pencil sharpener. The other set I finally bought on sale. It is so

I can hardly stand to use it. It includes ten or twelve iridescents that

breathtaking. They look white, but iridesce to yellow/purple, pink/green,

orange/blue, and so on. Those are also all sharpened to a point.

They are fun to work with, because you can just draw with them, or, you

can manipulate them with palette knives or brushes, and also with

painting mediums. For this piece I used Winsor & Newton's Liquin Detail

Painting Medium, as I was working so small. I don't generally care

for working on canvas, because of the texture, but this was OK. I have to say

in this case, the photograph truly does not do the piece justice.