Portraits in Oil

Woman with Mandolin

Conor C. Parnell

Dean M. Parnell

Self-Portrait 2006

"A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant." (Wikipedia) I'm posting four portraits that were done sometime over the last four years. Painting a portrait can be difficult on a number of levels. Can you achieve a likeness? Is the goal a formal portrait or something more expressive of the inner being? John Singer Sargent once said: "Everytime I paint a portrait, I lose a friend." Loyal British subjects were quite prepared to send Lucian Freud to the Tower of London for beheading when they saw his portrait of the Queen. I can see why many artists do so many self-portraits.