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 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 depict; The balloon was a feat of precision when dealing with edges and colour. The outline needed to be sharp yet rounded and accurate from my observations of Michelangelo’s ‘Doni Tondo’; The white wall was more an accident than planned stages. 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!