Great Grandmother Portrait Oil Painting

This portrait is in honor of my late great grandmother, Mary Metarco. She was someone I looked up to growing up and served as an inspiration to my whole family. I wanted to reflect on this through the lighting, composition, and color choices. The reference photo was taken on a snow day. I found her sitting by the window with the light bouncing off the white snow. The glow lit her face up well, creating a sense of peace. I believe this connects well with how I wanted to portray her through this portrait. Through creating this piece, I created many different hues and tones of colors to encapsulate her complexion. Working with different brush stroke approaches, I was able to achieve different textures. Her skin shows her story of the long, fulfilling life she lived and passed on the memories of to our family.