Frida in oil by Peter Smith

Your portraits have developed so much lately Peter. Frida is beautifully painted. I like the wistful expression and your use of tonal values.

Thank you Carole. I'm getting a lot of advice from friends at art group who don't let me get away with anything!

Definitely softer. The hairline needs to be taken down a little…I say this and often don’t notice my own glitches….

Saw this on the Forum and I think oil suits you really well

Good evening, Frida. Now look: let me square up to you and tell you what I really mean about your portraits: then you can sock me squarely in the teeth! You've never met Frida, have you? And that's the ONLY snag I find in your work = I believe you'd see SO much more if you painted from live models. The problem with working from photos (by the way, most of us do! ) is that you're reduced to trying to reproduce the photo in paint. I will stop lecturing you one of these days, but I can see from your work that you could achieve so much more if you'd just find a live model to sit for you. All the same, I agree with Carole - you've developed a lot lately. I just feel you'd zoom off into the stratosphere if you worked from actual fleshy people sitting slap bang in front of you. But Peter, if you're happy where you are - don't for one minute let me or anyone else urge you forward - the first person to please is YOU, not me or anyone else.