how to portray a star musician

i approached the brazilian jazz singer and guitarist paulinho garcia after one of his concerts, and he graciously agreed to pose for a portrait.

we started when i came to his residence with my drawing gear and we did some initial studies. then paulinho came to my studio several times where we worked on the final "grand"—although small in size—portrait and in the free moments for fun, a "fun" portrait came to life.

an accomplished woman

gabrielle, the director of education at the evanston art center, poses with her charcoal portrait.

portrait of twin girls

there is a story i tell over and over again and it goes like this: i was always afraid to paint a portrait of my twin daughters, anna and zuzanna, because, even though i can easily tell them apart, when i look at them, i can't really tell what makes them different from one another—they seem to have identical facial features. so it took me years to muster my courage to do it.

when i finally started, it was so painless, the picture was a pleasure to paint, and it was completed quickly.

i still don't have any idea what makes them different, but whatever it is, it got captured perfectly and there is no doubt who is who.

alex

my son, alex, patiently modeled for me during a portrait demonstration at the glenview art league.

a radiant soul

asia has been a pleasure to portray. in addition to her beautiful mind, she’s been practicing yoga for years, which gives her body beautiful muscle tone and glowing skin.

mother and daughter

has been always a fascinating portrait theme to me. there really is an unspoken connection. watching mariola and mira connect during a yoga session was the inspiration for their portrait.

mia

on the way home with her portrait, mia snapped this photo when she realized that there was a "passenger" in the backseat.

ludmila

when you're married to a figurative artist, you end up in a lot of paintings. you get caught off guard—in your sleep, when you brush your teeth, when you are happy and when you are sad. when you walk around your house, your own face keeps staring at you from every corner; when you come to a show dressed to kill, somebody looks at you and yells "it's you!" while pointing at your butt in white underwear in large scale right in the middle of a painting.