The Fun of Portrait-Painting (Part 2)

“My Niece” was done when she (Germaine) was only four years old. Painting her was a real challenge and a test on my concentration. Being young and energetic (unlike her brother, Daryl who was more quiet), she could hardly sit still! Within the one-hour painting session, she had made at least seven to eight different poses, as if assuming I could paint her every pose within a few minutes…This work was actually a combination of two poses captured – one pose of Germaine’s hands raised, with one hand playing with her hair; and another pose of her lips clinging onto the milk bottle…
Another fun part of doing this painting was my attempt to portray Germaine’s face like those that appear in the Chinese New Year paintings – having rosy cheeks and chubby, round forms…
Children are known to imitate adults very well. Sure enough, Germaine was influenced by me to start doing painting occasionally during my two years' stay at their house. She enjoyed mixing colours on the palette which surprisingly resembled those often used by me - colours with a greyish touch! I had even observed that the way she handled a pencil or a brush was similar to my gestures too, how amusing and astonishing to realize that I actually painted like that myself - seeing Germaine like my mirror-image...