Portrait of Jennings

I loved Jennings from the moment I met her. She is just so warm and engaging. Throughout the portrait process, I have enjoyed getting to spend time with her and discovering her personality. When I came to her house for the first time, she invited me back to her room and showed me all her toys.Her older sister Hayden is also wonderful. Seriously, she is like a little adult. I want to be both of their friends.

This month I had Jennings, Hayden, and their friend Louise over to my studio for a play-date art lesson. We did self-portraits.

This is the proposal for the portrait of Jennings, which I will complete next month.

Proposals are small versions of the portrait. I don't develop the face or any of the details. They are just done to give the parents an idea for the composition, pose and colors- the big picture stuff. In conjunction with the painted proposal I show them the photos I want to work from.

When I'm creating a proposal, I take into account all the parents' preferences for the facial expression, setting, and pose. For instance, my client Jenna showed me some pictures she liked of Jennings when she was younger. And Jennings' hair is blonder in the summer, so Jenna asked if I could paint it that way.

Although my portraits are interpretations of a child through my eyes, I want to make sure that I capture the way the parents see them as well. I know that I am painting their most prized possessions, so I do everything I can to ease their fears about how the portrait will turn out.

Around the table

Childhood is precious. You don’t get it back. The way we were brought up determines so much of who we become.

Growing up my family and I always ate dinner at the table. As we ate the meal my parents had made for us (mostly pot roast), we would talk about our day. Sometimes my dad would read to us a passage from Scripture or a chapter from one the books we were reading as a family. Sometimes I would hide broccoli in my napkin. Both of my parents worked, yet they still found time to sit down with me at the table. We weren’t rich, and no amount of money could make up for that time together.

Family dinners were one of the ways my parents loved and invested in my sister and I. We each had our own place at the table and I felt like my opinion mattered. It’s about enjoying the simple things in life: love and connectedness around the table. We got fed- both physically and spiritually.

Today, as we juggle busy schedules and distractions, family mealtime almost seems archaic. So very Leave-It-To-Beaver. We trade personal, physical connection for social media and t.v. time. In America we are conditioned to be productive and efficient, and the family dinner calls us to slow down. We don’t like that. And out of all the cultures, Americans seem to appreciate family dinners the least. Yet studies show that kids who eat dinner with their families are less likely to get depressed, drop out of school, and get into drugs, sex and alcohol. Because home-cooked meals are usually healthy, they are also less likely to develop obesity.

What an amazing difference a small thing can make! Perhaps most of the problems in our culture can be attributed to misplaced priorities.

I hope to one day have my own family.  I pray I will make my family a priority and not let a hectic schedule, job, or cell phone get in the way of sitting down to eat with my kids.

At Daddy's Feet

When I was young my dad started a tradition of reading to the family after dinner. We read Lord of the Rings, The Yearling (tear-jerker), Where the Red Fern Grows (serious tear-jerker), The Education of Little Tree, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Huckleberry Finn, Watership Down, and the Book of Virtues, to name a few.

I didn’t appreciate it then, but the times I spent on the living room floor listening to my dad have become some of my most cherished memories. The books we read shaped my experiences and have added richness and meaning to life. During this time, my dad instilled in me a love for reading that I have carried with me to this day.

Our family reading time deepened our bonds-we laughed, cried, and learned life lessons together, whether we were reading about talking rabbits, or hobbits, or a little boy being taught the ways of life by his Cherokee grandpa. In an age of T.V. and social media, these moments stand out as simple and rich; all we needed were the books, my dad's voice, and an imagination. Nothing fancy.

I feel privileged to help people cultivate deeper and more meaningful experiences with their children through my art, the same way these books did for me and my family. Each portrait is a testament of love between and parent and child, one that I hope adds richness to their relationship.  I encourage and promote family values because at the end of the day that's what life is all about- love and togetherness.

Art-Making Memories

By Kate Bradley  January 20 2014, 8:07 AM One of the ways I say thank you to my collectors for their patronage is to invite them and their kids over to my private studio for an art lesson. I enjoy this time catching up with my clients and it's one of the ways I support my mission, to help people celebrate their family relationships through my art. I am honored to help my collectors create memories with their kids and do something special for them.

My own parents put me in art classes as a kid, so I appreciate the importance of cultivating creativity at a young age. It had a huge impact in my life. As my mom told me the other day, she never wasted a penny on the lessons and supplies she bought for me. My sister's guitar, on the other hand, is a different story.

I hosted two lessons in my studio this past December. One was for my friend and collector, Ale, and her adorable boys, Sam and Noah. You can see their portraits here.

We had hot cocoa and I showed them how to draw self-portraits.

Then I had the Bush twins and their cousin, Caroline, over for more advanced studies. Our lesson was centered on complimentary colors which we expressed through a still life drawing.

Creating a Legacy

By Kate Bradley  January 10 2014, 8:43 AM Several years ago I painted oil portraits of twin girls, Jane and Nellie, daughters of Ben and Lauren.

In a year I will paint a portrait of their third daughter, Molly. Their mom is one of my favorite clients and she and her husband are big supporters of the local art community.

This past summer, Lauren and her friends over to my studio for a play-date with their daughters. While they were here, she saw one of the charcoal portraits I was working on and loved it. So  I suggested to Ben that he surprise Lauren with charcoals of the girls for Christmas. The twins are older now so their looks have changed, and I knew Lauren would love to capture them at this new time in their lives. I also knew she would love to have a portrait of Molly. And because charcoal is so different from oil, she won't feel like she's getting duplicate portraits.

And what husband doesn't want to score some major points with his wife?

It's fascinating for me as an artist to see my subjects change so quickly in such a short amount of time. I loved capturing the girls at this new stage in their lives, when they have come into their own a little bit more. That's why I offer to patrons my Legacy Collection, which includes three portraits of children at different stages in their lives.

These commissions were done completely as a Christmas surprise for Lauren. Normally if someone wants to give portraits a a surprise, I suggest buying a gift card because most moms want to be a part of the process. But because these were small head portraits, and because I had worked with the family before, I felt comfortable suggesting them as a surprise.