Christen Benat http://www.christenbenat.com Just another WordPress site Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:13:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Portrait in Progress http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/383/ http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/383/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:37:03 +0000 christen http://www.christenbenat.com/?p=383 This is my adorable little friend Sophia posing with the portrait I’m painting of her.  The seasons have changed since I started it and it’s sweater weather now.  We were at a holiday show and the studio where she takes dance and it was really nice to see her in person after looking at her in two dimensions for the last few months.  They say a painting is a series of corrections and I can certainly see that I need to make some changes to the shape of her face – it is actually more of a heart shape than I’ve painted it and I must do a better job of capturing her cute little chin.  The pet portrait to the right is of a little dog named “Skittles”

 

]]> http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/383/feed/ 0 Portrait of my mom and grandmother http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/generations/ http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/generations/#comments Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:42:00 +0000 christen http://www.christenbenat.com/?p=365 This portrait of my mom and her mom is another one of my “firsts”.  Looking back I’m really proud of  it not because of any expert skill, but that I was just able to follow through with the idea and experience the thrill of capturing a likeness of two people in the same portrait that are very important to me.  My photo reference was a favorite photo that my cousin took of my mom and grandmother “Honey” in her kitchen in Abilene, TX back in the late 1980′s. I just realized from the date on the group photo that I gave this to my mom 10 years ago for her birthday – she was sharing a party with my niece who was turning one year old the next day – so we were able to get a photo of all 4 generations together on April 1, 2001.  No Foolin’…

Time flies when you’re learning to paint!

20″ x 16″ Pastel Portrait

Original reference photo taken by my cousin

4 Generations together

]]> http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/generations/feed/ 0 Biscuit – the Boston Terrier, my first Pet Portrait http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/biscuit-the-boston-terrier-my-first-pet-portrait/ http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/biscuit-the-boston-terrier-my-first-pet-portrait/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:59:59 +0000 christen http://www.christenbenat.com/?p=346 Since I’m new to the whole blogging thing and this post is a first for me, I thought it would be fitting to write about my first pet portrait that I did a few years back.  It’s of Biscuit, my mom’s Boston terrier that she got for Christmas about 8 years ago. He has provided our family with endless amusement and companionship since then and I’m so glad I was inspired to create a portrait of him! I worked from photos that I took of him outside. This piece is pastel on paper since then I’ve been working primarily in oils.

]]> http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/biscuit-the-boston-terrier-my-first-pet-portrait/feed/ 1 Welcome to my Blog. http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/hello-world/ http://www.christenbenat.com/blog/hello-world/#comments Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:19:01 +0000 christen http://terri.machighway.com/~christen/?p=1 Check back often, I’ll be updating my blog frequently!

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