Vant Hoff Portraits

Over the past summer I had the privilege of doing the Vant Hoff Family Annual Photoshoot again. We always have a lot of fun. And the pictures always turns our fantastic! 

The secret is that the family is always color coordinated which make them look like a unit. When you dress your family for family portraits, always avoid shirts with slogans or images on them. These images distract from a persons' face. If you can not find exact matching outfits for the family try to find neutral colors for everyone, they can wear any shade of black, brown, gray, and white. All these colors should blend together nicely.

Another thing to remember is that kids need to be comfortable in front of the camera in order to give spontaneous sincere smiles. In previous years we have always taken the pictures at the Vant Hoffs acreage (a location where they are comfortable at). But they do not want to same background year after year, so this time I suggested this background. Which is a school building covered in little rocks. And conveniently there is a playground adjacent to it! So while we were doing individual portraits, the other kids were sliding down the slides.

So this collage is an extract of the hundreds of fantastic pictures that was taken at this family portrait shoot.

Untitled African Landscape

(Untitled)
24*48"
Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas



So how long does it take to paint a landscape?

Well, very, very long if you decide to attempt a more realistic landscape painting for the first time. And to make it even more of challenge, paint it on a 2*4 feet canvas. So, I started this painting last spring (May/June) and after quite a bit of repainting and some more layers. Some technique building such as painting clouds, trees and grass. It is done.

But I do not know what title to give it? If you look at the landscape, it is a picture of Wildebeest migrating at sunset. When you look at the clouds, you will notice that they look like clouds that hang around after a thunder storm. So imagine that there was a late afternoon thunderstorm. The wildebeest waited it out and now that it has cleared, they are moving on in the last few minutes of sunlight. The sun is very low. It is reflecting yellow on the bottom of the clouds and shiny reflections of the side of the trees and wildebeest. Now you know the setting and maybe you can help me to title it by leaving a comment.

Thank you so much for looking at my art and if you leave a comment thank you again. This painting is done. What a relief!