Like this one, many of the paintings shown on this site are portraits of clients. People commission me to paint their own portrait, a portrait of their spouse, or portraits of their children.
Taking commission work allows me to make my living solely by painting. And this collaborative form of art-making teaches me a lot about how to communicate through images as well as how to present myself as an artist.
Many portrait painters are, to some degree, afraid of their clients and willing to change any detail of the finished painting which does not suit the sitter. Other artists barely engage with their clients, creating a work that actually has very little to do with the model. I work somewhere in between these extremes.
I want each portrait to reflect something very specific about an individual--everything from their color preferences to their visions of themselves--but, in the end, the painting is my work.