For the art club ‘Twee Taartjes’ I made a painting of Alice Neel. I saw a documentary about her life and it was not an easy life. Despite everything that happens in her life she kept on painting in her own way. I admire her for that.

Her oldest daughter died very young and I can imagine that this sad episode was always in her mind the rest of her life. So I wanted to take that as the subject for the painting. And I used this photo as a reference. It is Alice with her oldest daughter. Later in her life she had three more children.

The result:

I made a video from the process of the making. You can see how I wrestle with the composition and with making a realistic painting. The moment I decided to do it on my own way I had fun was able to finish the painting.

Thank you for watching and have a nice day!

Herma