Rabbi Rich
Happy birthday, my handsome prince! It was on that blind date 58 years ago that I felt like I had known you my whole life…and by now, I just about have!
The Birthday Boy
Tag Archives: happy birthday
Let’s Party!
Lasa Grey
Spa Day
Bliss
Today our beautiful granddaughter, Lasa, celebrates her third birthday. I’ve painted her three times in the last three years, but I’m sure I’m not done yet. Happy birthday, darling Lasa!
Best Friends Forever
Carole
Today Carole Goldberger, one of my oldest and dearest friends, celebrates her birthday. I painted her pop portrait before I had a website or wrote a blog, so I thought I’d share it on this birthday, to remind her that I’ll always see her as the golden girl I first got to know in Acapulco, no matter how many years have passed (and I’m not telling). Happy birthday, my sister…
Life’s Great Gift
Today our bright and beautiful oldest granddaughter, Isabelle Tess, turns 17. It’s hard to believe that 17 years have passed in what seems like the blink of an eye, but the high school junior who gets her driver’s license today is surely proof. As any grandparent can tell you, it’s a remarkable privilege to be able to live to watch your children raise their children and the thrill of a lifetime to see them do it so well. We couldn’t be more proud. Happy birthday, Izzy!
My project in Florida continues, as I go on to complete the triptych I’ll be calling “Three Sisters,” with a portrait of Izzy & Maddie’s 8 year old sister, Cassie. I’ve written before about the intimate nature of painting someone’s portrait. You spend hours gazing at a face, trying to unlock the secrets of resemblance, and can’t help but feel a connection, even if you’re using a photograph, rather than painting a live model. Painting portraits has given me a much greater understanding of those artists throughout time who have fallen in love with their muses, but in my case, the love came first…
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Today our gorgeous, brilliant and hilarious granddaughter, Maddie, turns 15. (I know I’m her grandmother, but I’m not exaggerating.) She fills our lives with laughter and joy and makes us proud of the amazing young woman she has become. Happy birthday, Maddie!
My winter project in Florida this year is to paint my three oldest granddaughters as they look now, to replace some paintings hanging in my condo here that I did of them when they were very little and I was just beginning to paint. It’s so much harder to capture people you know and love and are emotionally tied to than strangers, who can be reduced to pure patterns and measurements. There’s much more pressure to get the likeness right. Someone I once knew liked to say that everything easy is done already, and that is certainly true of portraiture. I’m no Michelangelo, but painting a portrait is 95% agony and 5% ecstasy…and only if you actually achieve the likeness. Believe it or not, that 5% is enough to bring you back to paint another. So here I am, already working on the next portrait…
Girl Power
No Autographs, Please
Today our adorable, sweet and funny daredevil of a granddaughter, Cassie, celebrates her eighth birthday. I could post videos of her surfboarding, rock climbing, snowboarding, ziplining or indoor skydiving, but this painting I did of her, when she was really little but already her own person, says it all for me…attitude is everything! Happy birthday, Cassie!
On Gifts…
Two years ago, I decided to paint a small portrait of my friend, Sydelle, who was celebrating the same “big birthday” I was celebrating that year. Wanting to surprise her with it, I couldn’t ask her for a photograph, so I snapped a picture of a framed photo of her with her significant other, my great good friend, Herb, and his dog, Charley, that was on the desk in their kitchen.
Sydelle
I gave her that portrait a few months later and was happy to see it in their family room every time I was there. More than that, Herb was really taken by it and constantly complimented my ability to catch a likeness, encouraging me to market that ability.
Charley
Fast forward…now Herb is about to celebrate an even bigger birthday. How could I not paint a portrait of him, after all that praise? Although Sydelle tried to send me photographs to use this time, none of them quite worked for me, so I went back to the same one I had used for her portrait and, just because Herb loves him more than anything on earth, painted Charley as well, on a little 5” X 5” canvas of his own. When I first painted the grisaille for Herb’s portrait, I thought I had not quite caught the likeness yet, so I started calling it “Almost Herb.” The title tickled me, so it stuck, though I do think that anyone who knows Herb Siegel, legendary playboy and lawyer from Buffalo, NY, would recognize him in this.
Almost Herb
Happy birthday, Herb!
Grandparenthood
My Darling Girl
Sixteen years ago today, our first grandchild, Isabelle, was born in NYC. A natural born leader, Izzy taught us how to be grandparents, named us Granny & Rich (I might have preferred Gramps & Nance, but it wasn’t to be), and has continued to dazzle us ever since. I first painted her offering me a sweet kiss on a beautiful day—not the last time I painted her, but the only time I’ve painted me. Happy sweet sixteen, Izzy!
Thank Heaven for Little Girls
Baby Bird
Today our beautiful, talented, hilarious granddaughter, Maddie, turns 14. I first painted her, when she was barely a toddler and I was barely a painter, kissing her Mama on a sunny summer’s day. Happy birthday, Maddie!
