My latest painting, Rivka (2024), depicts my mother, Rivka. My mum has always been my greatest supporter and a role model for me.
She has seven university degrees and inspired my own foray into academia. When I was child, I attended Masters classes with her for two years at the University of Queensland.
In this way, I became an unofficial student in the Masters Course in Applied Linguistics. Interestingly, I completed the same degree as an adult.
I am presently undertaking a PhD. However, unlike my mum, my seventh university degree is a Doctor of Philosophy (Law).
Rivka has always encouraged me to follow my dreams. Consequently, I travelled the globe and lived on four continents. I became a teacher, an artist and now, a lawyer.
Thus, I wanted to honour Rivka with a painting. Although I have painted her in the past, it has not been for many years.
A Friendly Face
My mum is one of the nicest people I have ever met. For this reason, I wanted my painting, Rivka (2024) to capture her warmth and kindness.
I chose a simple composition to allow her character to shine through. I kept the skin tones peachy and the background neutral.
One of my mum’s favourite colours is green. For this reason, I used a number of green hues for the clothing in this piece. These included: green grey, alpine green, chromium green oxide and forest green.
In addition, I used shades of green, blue and grey to create the eye colour. Although I rarely paint using green, I enjoyed the process on this occasion.
In order to create colour balance, I used warm ochres for the hair as contrast to the green palette.
I also used enhanced hues of yellow and pink in creating the skin tone. The result is a realistic portrayal of an inspirational and one-of-a-kind person. Rivka (2024) is a tribute to one of the most important people in my life and joins a treasured collection of paintings of my mum.