We're two sisters who are craft book publishers and found ourselves in the midst of an avocado grove. We bought this house where we planned to conduct our publishing business and in the deal got 4 acres of avocado trees thrown in. Now we're not only publishers but ranchers as well! This blog is all about avocados and anything else that strikes my fancy.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Sepia Saturday #178 Family Portraits



When I saw the photo of this beautiful woman, our photo prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday, I thought about portraits and most particularly portraits of my family members. I've posted the portraits along with photographs. Can you see the likeness?

My mother and father both had these drawings done when they were in their 20s. I have no idea who the artist was. Maybe a friend of theirs. Unfortunately they're unsigned.



A later photograph of my father, but still looking a lot like the drawing:




Here's the one of my mother:


and a photograph at a similar age, but without the reverse roll hairstyle:




Barbara, my sister, was in a show recently where everyone had to enter a self portrait. Here's her entry:

And here's the photo she used as her inspiration:


My uncle Glen started painting in his late 70s. He had a wonderful career as an artist, entering shows and winning many awards. He kept painting well into his 90s. Here's his self portrait with a photo alongside. Glen was my father's older brother. You can see the resemblance.



After a trip to California, Glen decided he wanted to paint a portrait of my daughter, Megan, but he didn't have a photograph of her. So he used a photo from one our books in which she had modeled.





Here's the photo from the book cover:


To see other artistic offerings, click here Sepia Saturday.





20 comments:

  1. Nancy, all the paintings are lovely and spot on! Especially like the one of your sister!

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  2. Your parents were Hollywood Beautiful! Uncle Glen and Barbara are quite talented, and had you created a matching quiz, I would have passed with flying colors.

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    1. Yes, there sure were a lot of quizzes this time around. Mine would have been the easiest!

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  3. Fortunately your portraits all seem a lot less troubled than the lass in the photo prompt. Barbara did very well to capture the vivacity of the photograph, and I think your Uncle Glen's self portrait is very skilled, although I notice he's softened a few wrinkles and hardened the smile a little. A charming series of studies.

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    1. Nice to do a self portrait and be able to erase the wrinkles.

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  4. That's what you get when you have a family full of artists!! These are wonderful paintings/drawings. I think the Barbara one is my favorite too, but your Uncle's painting of Megan is lovely. Uncle Glen and Colonel Sanders are like a beacons of hope for all of us older folk thinking of something new.

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  5. Some very beautiful and talented people in your family!

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  6. WOW!

    The drawings of your parents are wonder. They are both very good looking people. I could imagine them both being the popular couple at school?

    Barbara's self portrait is excellent but your Uncle Glen was very talented. His self portrait is superb.

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  7. My favorite? Glen painting Glen...it's excellent!

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  8. Uncle Glen most surely have known he had incredible talent long before he was in his late 70s? Maybe he just had too many other things to do. I hope something similar happens to me !!

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    1. Yes, he actually did know he had talent. But having a family and having to make a living kept him from his passion. That's the nice thing about retirement. You can do all the things you always wanted to do.

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  9. You have talented artists in your family. I particularly like the photo and painting of Megan.

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    1. I doubt if my daughter will agree with you. She'll probably be embarrassed that I added her photograph to this post.

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  10. Lovely pictures and as Bob rightly says, a testament to all the talented artists in your family.

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  11. Very talented artists....I think the facial portraits are the most difficult...even your sister did a great job with her self portrait. This is beyond my ability! I am partial to the first two sketches of your parents...

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  12. I loved this post. I have portraits of my parents done when my father was in the Army during WWII. One is pastel and the other watercolor. They are signed and dated, and I was very lucky to find information about the artist on the internet. The artist had just recently died, so there was an obituary that mentioned that he had done portraits of officers while in the Army in Alabama.

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    1. You're lucky that you were able to find the artist. Wish I knew who did the two of my parents. There's probably an interesting story there, but unfortunately there's no one left to ask.

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  13. How lucky you are to have such a set of portraits. They made for a fascinating post.

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  14. I'm inspired by Uncle Glen. It's never too late! These are all wonderful.

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