Beth's portrait is half of a diptych. I painted the matching portrait two years earlier. I like doing diptychs, but I usually paint both portraits at the same time--except, of course, when I don't...
In 2007, I exhibited a series of matched paintings in which both portraits were of the same model. I created half of the eight diptychs in 2006 and completed each of them with a second painting in 2007. Each of the diptychs shows the subjects before and after a major physical change. In 2006, Swollen's "before" images had me trying to plan for an "after" that I could not yet know!

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