By Cynthia Morihara, August 13, 2020 — My advocation as a portrait painter started with my High School art teacher Mr. B. He was an excellent portrait painter and he could capture a highly realistic likeness of a person. His paintings of past school principals donned the administrative hallways. I had Mr. B for 3 years of high school art. In 1974, I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with majors in painting and drawing. Other subjects that I took were art history, jewelry making, and weaving. In my school, there was an emphasis on figure drawing, but early on I could tell that my strength was in portrait painting.
A patient of mine once told me that I could not only capture a likeness of my subject but the personality as well. On the website www.cynthiamoriharapaintings.com you can see 22 of my paintings. The one that I am working on now is of my granddaughter. My purpose was to capture her smile. My website has brought in 3 commissions. I charge $300 per portrait. The price includes materials as well as my time. I think that is a fair price for my skill level.
My first concern when accepting a commission is to get a good photo or jpeg of the subject to use as a reference. It helps if the picture has a high resolution and a good composition. It is my custom to work 3 hours in the morning on my painting. Painting for me takes a lot of thought. I do not go into the work lightly. Most of my time is spent looking back and forth between the photo and the canvas in order to see what must be done next. Because I want my customers as well as myself to be satisfied, a painting can take up to a year to complete.
My work today appears different from 40 years ago. It is not as realistic as it was. Perhaps my eyesight or my attitude has changed. Portraits are not exact images of a person. As an artist, I put my own feelings into my work in creating a personal portrait that I think would be complimentary to my subject as well as to myself.