On the Silk Road by Gerhard Ritter

I'm not at all surprised it won, it's marvellous. I like the way you've used the complimentaries, and the character you've captured in the face.

A great portrait, a winner, definately.

Your water colour portraits are outstanding. I have loved looking through your portfolio.

Not fortunate at all ... you have a very specific talent for portraits. I wish I was confident enough to do this with watercolour. Do you paint every day ? What is your day job ? I have enjoyed looking through your portfolio.

Hi Sandra, I think that painting what you love doesn't nescessarily rquire much talent - more like obsessiveness. I started painting about six years ago and would have painted more than 1600 oil paintings since then - quality doesn't matter so long as you cover the miles on canvas - quality arises from an understanding of your materials, a close observation and a dedication to do better next time. Same goes for my watercolours - you've got to be prepared to waste a lot of materials to come up with satisfactory work - I am seldom satisfied with my paintings because I can see all the flaws in them - that drives me on to try to improve. But I do love getting feed back as most of my artist friends are too complementary. Swing over to my blog to see what I do http://ritterart.blogspot.com/