for you only

a few months back my friends darling son stopped me at church and asked- “Sister Graff- would you ever paint ME?”I knew this was because I had done this painting of a girl that his mother had that resembled his sister. Well how could I respond to this  sweetest most earnest questioning request and so I said yes. (also maybe he was just preying on my mother guilt  for middle children—they so often just get sandwiched in and you always worry about them feeling special). Now you must know I hate portraits--- I will not do them for love or money or even blood relatives! It seems strange for a woman who has spent the last year painting figures- but really legs are easy and especially painting my own legs 20 times -- I pretty much have them down.  B the truth is generally portraits stress me out and make me grouchy. So I finally got around to doing it. I just did something quick- gave myself a 2 hr time limit (here you can see SS#3 helping me paint the background.

But nothing beats the ear to ear smile I saw when I gave it to him. He ran around the church parking lot with it and was the cool kid in the family for that moment. But the best was his thank you note which included a lovely portrait of yours truly. He selected which image he wanted to draw from with his mothers access to my Facebook photos. I must say I was most impressed by the detail of my toes, wedding ring, and shoes and even the legs  and fabric of my family room ottoman. And his enhancement of my figure would make any Brazilian proud. And if you see the big brown man around tell him I am waiting to be paid  for this in chiclets or indian food.

and to darling C- XO always-- love sister G!