John Hansen ArtistArtwork - Girl with a Balloon

This painting was such a pleasure to paint. The girl is the sister of a play friend of my son when he was quite young. I took photos at their home and originally the red balloon was to be the family’s small dog. There were a number of challenges throughout this piece: The development of the girl’s white top came from a passage I read in a book about the artist Gerard ter Borch on ‘how to paint snow’ as he was taught this and applied it to the amazing silk dresses he was able to beautifully depict; The painting of the balloon I discovered became a feat of precision when dealing with edges and colour. The outline needed to be sharp yet rounded and accurate, which reminded me of my long ago observations of Michelangelo’s ‘Doni Tondo’; The greatest success I achieved in painting the white wall was more of an accident than planned. A true feeling of whiteness is sometimes difficult to achieve in a painting. As the wall developed I gave it a warm tone that seemed too acrid at the time, a possible error, though when I went over this with a grey mixed predominately with violet and charcoal black the colour came to a perfect finish!