Welcome to my Blog

I'm a professional award winning Portrait artist from NSW Australia.

Not just a likeness- portraits with Life!
I bring your photos to life in paintings that will touch your heart!

A photo freezes a moment while a painting melts hearts.

Capture a moment in their life and
keep it alive in an Heirloom Portrait !

"Your portraits capture more life than a photo ever could!"
Vanessa.



Satisfaction Guarantee .

Have me create a special portrait just for you!.
Supply the photos and then plan the great unveiling!


I have original animal and landscape artworks available for sale on my website.

Learn more at my website-


https://www.suelinton.com.au/wordpress/




Saturday, April 27, 2013

Hunter the Lorikeet

I can create a portrait of any type of pet. Hunter was a hand reared Lorikeet and had died when the family dog attacked him. I created this memorial portrait for Caitlin to remember him in better times. 
He was a cheeky little bugger so I wanted the portrait to reflect this and to be a colourful and lifelike memory.
 It always helps if you have a photo that shows something of your pet's personality as I can always enhance what is in the photo.
Here is the reference photo.

  A great pose but as usual with a photo everything has the same emphasis and Hunter and his expression is lost in the clutter.Because he is so colourful and I wanted his personality to shine I decided to simplify the portrait as much as possible. 


 Here is the acrylic underpainting. I have made him look at you more in the portrait than he was in the photo. I decided to have him on a branch rather than the upright of a lamp like in the photo.



Here I'm starting to come back in with Oil in his real colours.I started to do him section by section at first but then realised I needed to do the whole painting at once so I could compare the overall effect.I wanted to get his face first though!
 It's only rough here.I'd never painted a bird portrait before and I was having a ball!

Here he is 75% finished. I was going to have him feel like he was outdoors but that idea really restricted my choice of background colours and I felt he was just a blob surrounded by a pale whitish colour.
Back to the drawing board..Here he is finished. I wanted his portrait to be a cheery , colourful one of a ' cheeky little bugger '.



Looking for mischief!
Hunter
 40 x 50cms
 oil on gallery wrap canvas
 The portrait is more vibrant than this - around his beak should be white.

'It looks amazing. I'm very happy with the portrait.

Thank you so much'
 Caitlin

Brandy & Molly - from the archives



All my recent portraits are secret so here is one from the archives.
 Brandy and Molly
30 x 40cms 
 Framed Pastel

 Brandy the foxy had passed away and we didn't have a decent photo for her portrait.The portrait was to be a surprise 21st birthday gift for the families daughter and they wanted Brandy placed with Molly as if she was still alive and with her mate.  
We ended up finding a book on Fox terriers that had a photo of a dog that looked like Brandy. I used that as my reference photo and fine tuned the portrait as needed to make it look just like her.
We had a recent great photo of Molly the beagle and together they make a great memorial portrait!
 The portrait  was a great success and was received with many happy tears!

Friday, April 12, 2013

Hunter portrait artists exhibition at Studio 48 - our portrait painting groups 2013 exhibition.

Here are some photos from the opening. There was wide range of styles and standards . Everyone had to paint a self portrait including a hand and also another member of the group that they drew out of a hat.
The opening

Some of the portraits


My 2011 Archibald entry of my mother is on the RHS


 Denise with her self portrait ( LHS ) and another members portrait of her on the right.It was interesting to see other members versions of yourself!

  Here are 2 versions of Helen and Helen's portrait of me with one of my sailboards on the right.



Irini's self portrait top and John's version of her at the bottom. We had the reference photos next to them so you can tell if it is a good likeness.

 




Cath in front of the portraits of her. Her self portrait LHS & Bob's is RHS.

 
   Kay near her portraits. Denise's version LHS and Kay's self portrait RHS.
 My portrait of Cliff near Kath's self portrait. I didn't have enough time to paint two really large portraits.
Me with my self portrait with Zeuss. The portrait looks better than that. I edited the photo to make me look good. lol's

Here is how it should look





Helen's portrait of me LHS and mine RHS

 This is just a sample of the portraits. There were about 40 in total.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Come and say hello at the portrait group exhibition at Studio 48 New Lambton



Here's a bit more information about the portrait group I paint with on Mondays.
Most art shows or exhibitions don’t feature many portraits as a portrait of a person is the most difficult painting an artist can create!
The painting has to look like the subject and capture something of their personality.
I paint portraits for a living so I realise how challenging that can be!

Our group are all members of the Society of Artists Newcastle .
The group started as  a Monday drawing group who used to take it in turns to sit as the model for the others to sketch.. Below is a 20 min sketch of Dudley I created at one of these sessions.


The longest time we could have someone pose for a drawing was only 30mins which didn’t really allow enough time for a painted portrait or a more finished one.
About 4 years ago I suggested we start to have a few longer 3hr sessions  so we could practise our painting. 3 hrs is still not really long enough to complete a portrait but you can get some quite interesting results. ( see Michael below).
It’s got so popular now you have trouble getting a place to set up your easel!




                                                                                                                                                                                                                The group in action at Lambton- the model is sitting at the front out of sight of the camera.

Each year we have an annual exhibition where the members get to do a more finished portrait. This year it is at Studio 48 opening this Friday at 6pm.





The challenge this year was to create a portrait of yourself including at least one hand ( hands are hard to paint) and also create one of another member of the group who’s name was selected by a draw out of a hat. 
There are a wide variety of styles in the group. Several of the members  have entered the Archibald art prize  so there should be some good portraits on view!

Here is my portrait group ( & Archibald) entry from last year..This painting ended up winning first prize in the Oil section at the  Dobell art show at Rathmines 2012.




‘Making a mark” self portrait Sue Linton 2012

 Here I am creating one of my two entries for this year..

 "He's a winner to me!'
Unfinished self portrait with Zeuss 2013

I'd love to see you at the opening!
 I will also be at the exhibition from 12 - 2pm on Sunday the 7th April ( this Sunday) so drop in and have a chat!