Tabitha's Birthday Bling

Another stunning portrait Thea, I love the composition and the colourful necklace, she looks gorgeous. I am sure she had a great day

I like the simplicity of your portraits Thea. This one is great, i'm sure this will be a treasured piece for years to come....VERY well done. Best regards Steve

Another lovely piece Thea. Always stand out in the gallery.

She is beautiful Thea and I love the colour the beads give to your painting of her - I like the way you have treated her skin, so many subtle changes of tone and colour. I am still struggling with backgrounds so have gone back to leaving them white or very pale and I like your suggestion of background around her head and no painting never seems to get easier so I am back to basics again struggling with landscape compositions but doing fun animal sketches while watching the telly in the darker evenings !

A beautiful painting of a beautiful little girl. I agree with Stephen regrading the simplicity. Portaits are hard and in watercolour especially but you have painted a great portrait.

Really lovely Thea, I really don't know how you manage to produce such excellent and distinctive portaits in watercolour!

Thank you all so very much for all your kind and generous comments. Norah, I struggle with backgrounds and am actually quite wimpy about them so I err on the side of caution and hint at one. I often think just leaving white paper sometimes is all that is needed, although I do admire people who can really go for it with their backgrounds. Christine, I wish I knew what I was doing when I paint anything let alone a portrait. I just seem to bumble along trying this and trying that with the hope that something will work in the end. I would love to get to the stage when you sit down and know exactly where the painting is going. Wouldn't that be nice!!

She's very cute Thea, well done!

She looks very grown up with her 'jewels', charming study Mia.

Sorry Thea, getting my Mia's and Thea's mixed up!

Thank you very much, Stephen and Louise for adding such nice comments. Don't worry about the name thing Stephen - easily done and I answer to all sorts of names in my house lol!

What a pity this lovely little portrait left the pol page so quickly! I saw it this morning but my pc was being stupid and wouldn't let me comment so I've logged in again now but it was nowhere to be seen!!! The portrait is deceptively simple and very fresh - a haunting reminder how quickly time passes and children grow up. Well done again.

This is just lovely, Thea! Such a gorgeous little girl, looking absolutely self-assured in her bling! As usual, your colors and translucency of color are simply superb.

Thank you so much, Kirstie, Debs and Seok for your lovely comments which mean so much to me. Seok, there is nothing Tabitha likes better than tacky jewellery - I do hope her taste improves with age!

I really wished Stephen was right with the name and that it was one of my paintings! Your portraits are stunning, Thea. I envy your talent in that!

What a cutie - as always I love your colour choices.

Well, you have captured her so well Thea. Looks like you have been doing these for years!!

This is such a beautiful painting Thea. A portrait like this says so much more than a photograph and it will be treasured for years to come. I can only agree with all the comments above - just stunning!

Very good portrait painting, Thea. Lovely subject and good composition. I particularly like the way you have mirrored the angle of the 'bling' jewllery with the subtle background. You've certainly caught the expression of a two year old at her own birthday party very well.

Thank you all so very much for all the varied and interesting comments. I haven't shown this portrait to my daughter (Tabitha's Mummy) yet - she is one of my hardest critics, so I am a bit in trepidation. Perhaps I can show her all the lovely comments and she might go a bit easier on me lol!!

I have only just come across this Thea she's so serious bless her.You have done yet another great job of this as always,beautiful.

I echo all that has been said Thea, you have a lovely way of painting children so endearingly with out them becoming chocolate box sickly sweet, if you know what I mean, and Tabitha looks great in her birthday bling.

Thank you very much Joy and Val - such nice comments - always appreciated. I do enjoy catching the expressions and often the nicest portraits are when the subject is not smiling. However, getting a decent photograph of a child is very tricky and I was just lucky with this one.

I love your light touch with portraits Thea, I too really like the colours of her jewellery. Thanks for your comment on my recent portrait. I do like your 'partial background' look and am tempted to add a little bit to my last picture...might not be brave enough though!