Think Pink...Face of Ventura Project

This is a very special young teenager, Olivia Simonson, whose story really touched me. I know her mother, who passed away from breast cancer, would be so proud of her and I was thinking that when I painted her from life, in a single sitting, for my non-profit Face of Ventura Project running in The Ventura Breeze newspaper in CA. http://www.venturabreeze.com/ Thanks to Sheldon Brown, publisher, for his continued support of this project.

You get what you get when you paint from life with its distractions. There is talking, well, of course, breaks for coffee, lunch, restroom, aspirins or whatever. Each sitting has a life of its' own.

But I felt a real connection to Olivia hearing her talk about her mom and how she is now trying to raise money for the PINK RIBBON cause by climbing the world's highest mountain. As a proud mother myself of two young ladies, I found this eloquent role model inspiring. You don't get that connection painting from a photo in quite the same way.