Family portrait artist Sonia Hale’s portrait painting of a little boy
Oil portrait on Belgium linen
28″ x 20″
I enjoy being a family portrait artist, as I get to work with families with children of all ages. In this case the family had very young children and I was pleased to get to paint each child at the age that they were. Joseph was a very young child and what a joy to paint his portrait painting. Family portrait painting takes years of experience in order to be able to elicit the best in the child’s oil portrait. I have tricks up my sleeve when I get ready to take photo reference of my smallest portrait subjects. Sometimes I have a puppet. Other artists have resorted to painting their noses red! That’s a great way to keep the young children’s attention on you, don’t you think?
Joseph is the younger brother of two older sisters, of whom I also painted portrait commissions. They all have these lovely eyes and coloring. We choose this outfit for the portrait painting in order to complement his delicate skin tones. I love the delicate harmony of colors in this painting. I also love how he’s holding the little boat in the oil portrait. Children’s oil portraits should show where they are in life. Bringing out the detail of the boat from his sailor outfit and the sailor’s chest makes this portrait painting pull together for me. And the timeless theme of the young child with the old sea chest works so well. The best portrait artists work beyond the surface to evoke an emotion and sense of character in their little portrait subjects. A portrait painting can be a work of art in it’s own right and be a timeless family heirloom When the young family moved to Ohio, I was pleased to know they had their three portrait paintings with them. But, to be honest, I really loved these oil portraits of their family and it was a bit bittersweet. His older sister is Sarah in the white dress on this website: https://soniahale.com/product/portrait-painter-2/.
