Young Girl with Hand on her Shoulder

"Like a bird before a snake" is a comment by one of the first scholars of miniature painting, made in 1927, about the miniature in the presence of the photograph, meaning fascinated and then swallowed. Actually they influenced each other for decades. Interestingly enough, I came to this craft through the art of hand tinting photographs, being one of the last in a long line of hand tinters working for a 3rd generation photo studio in Charleston. It was just about when the job became defunct in 2003 due to the rise in digital photography, that I started making this series of portraits and so for years, I just drew them and colored the pictures with Marshall's Photo oils. sold.

This painting is copied from a hand painted daguerrotype from the 1800's. It was actually very difficult to translate into an oil painting because it had deep shadows but its so interesting in the light of my process and coming full circle in a way. Available.

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis(1779-1852)

She was known as Nelly and was the grandaughter of Martha Washington and the step grand of George Washington. When she married George's nephew, Lawrence Lewis, her gift from the Washington's was 2000 acres adjacent to Mt Vernon. She got 80 slaves from her father's estate (John Parke Lewis). Completed September 2012. sold.

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891)

In 1864, Sherman succeeded Grant as the Union commander in the American Civil War. Proponent and practitioner of "total war", Sherman left a grim swath of destruction in his wake throughout Georgia and the Carolinas. Completed in October of 2012. sold

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Professor of modern languages and belles lettres at Harvard, was married to Frances Appleton and lived comfortably in a Georgian Mansion given to the couple by Frances father. He was a very popular poet in his time. Complete in November 2012. sold.

Marie Huger Lowndes (Abt 1832-1915)

Otherwise known as Mrs. Edward Laight Cottenet. Not much else to be known specifically about her but after googling the husbands name I see that Marie has a serious family tree, so many of the prominent Charleston names are there such as Huger, Lowndes, Middleton, Elliot, Harleston, Izard, her mothers father was a senator, her dad's father was a governor and so, as the story goes for all copied miniatures, its all in the lineage. Complete November 2012.
sold

Lea Rose Victoria Jude

This very french looking portrait was originally painted as a watercolor on ivory by John Robinson who was an Englishman who came to Philadelphia in 1817 and exhibited at PAFA regularly. She is otherwise known as Mrs R. V. Hurtel and that's all the information I could find about this. Lea Rose as an oil on trash was complete in November 2012. sold.

Eleanor Britton

The original was a watercolor on ivory by Anna Claypoole Peale painted in 1821. Eleanor was the wife of William Musgrave and that is all the information I could find for her. This was completed in November 2012. sold.