In choosing the background for Erik Schneider's portrait, I was largely inspired by something that this art collector and gallery owner told me. One of his very favorite paintings is George Bellows' Stag At Sharkey's.
A sitter's artistic preferences are often included in their portraits. For this portrait, I stole the floating roses from Sandro Botticelli's The Birth Of Venus.

To learn more about the making of this portrait, please visit my blog.