In 2020, I started a new adventure – portraiture!
To get started without talking myself out of it (who does that?), I began with copies of several different portraits of Queen Elizabeth — that’s the first Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn.
Perhaps because of her family issues — beheaded momma, disinterested father, insecure sister, competitive cousin, etc. etc. – Elizabeth I monitored her public image extremely closely, hiring only the most respected portrait painters.
From these official portraits, she permitted numerous copies to be commissioned by syncophantic nobles to hang in their country homes, by less well known artists but using the official portrait as a pattern. These were sometimes purchased in anticipation of a royal visit (having the queen as your guest could really test your finances).
While I am not expecting a royal visit, creating contemporary versions of her portraits hewed to the tradition. Or so say I, anyway.
Considering that oil paints were still hand-mixed by artists from raw pigment and linseed oil in Elizabethan times, there is no real justification for the use of acrylic markers here, except that they were a new tool for me!
20 x 20″ Acrylic on Canvas