A Most Unconventional Abstract Wedding Portrait

I have a client I call an UnIntentional Muse (behind her back, I must confess). I met her years ago at my old shop in Falls Church where I always admired her graciousness and sense of style.  When she started her floral business I followed her journey both in real life and on social media.

While Deborah does beautiful glorious wedding and event work she was never too busy to whip up a corsage or boutonniere for my kids as they headed off to a high school dance.

I am very inspired by Deborah's color combinations.   Way back when, I was so taken with a casual bouquet Instagram post I asked her if I could paint it. (See the painting here.) Her tulips were an inspiration for some paintings this spring as well.

Marriage Muses

Deborah has always been a very positive about my art and really supportive as I try out ideas. When I saw this wonderful casual wedding photo of her son and his new bride I felt inspired to try something new. An abstract that alluded to the photo but that would be sort of a "hidden portrait". An art piece that you could hang on your wall that didn't necessarily say "We just got back from our honeymoon".

 I started out with a stretch canvas and blocked in basic forms.

 I played with adding and scraping back many layers of paint using palette knives, paint brushes and other tools. The hardest thing about this process is letting a layer dry before adding the next so it doesn't turn to mud! I tried to keep an eye on my inspiration photo to keep its proportions and lightness in mind.  This was tricky as I don't normally use this much white but it was fun to play with the texture of the paint and the multiple layers.

 Deborah was tickled with this unconventional approach - I am looking forward to trying this again with different photo.  Let me know if you have one you would like me to tackle!

Mountain Wedding by TW Stifel

See Deborah's other beautiful floral work www.thelittlegardenspot.com
Wedding photo courtesy of www.aaronwatsonphoto.com