Finished portrait and earthquakes

I’ve been working on a portrait of a collegue of mine who died from cancer last year. It’s been a hard project as it brings back so many memories of my friend and because of earthquakes!

The painting is going to hang in the meeting/tea room at work as the room is named after her. A copy of the painting is going to her family – so no pressure, right?! Just before the lastest 6.3 (under the house – grrr) I’ve finished all the underpainting and I’m due to start putting coloured glazing layers on, when….you guessed it….an earthquake (the 6.3) throughs it off the easel and the studio lamp goes straight through the canvas. I nearly cried!

Once I’d got power and water back on at home, cleared up the rubble and picked things back up, I patched the canvas. Here’s a picture of what it looked like patched.

Here’s a picture of the back

And here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for….here’s the finished picture:

(click for full a larger image)

Turned out ok in the end :).