Richard Christian Nelson's Portrait Luke At 15 is a finalist in the Portrait Society of America's 2013 International Portrait
Competition. Twenty finalists were selected from over 2,000 entries from all over
the world for this prestigious competition. The finalists' paintings will be brought to the annual PSOA conference which takes place in Atlanta this year,
on the weekend of April 25-28. Final prizes will be awarded at a banquet there
Saturday evening.
Although Nelson has won a number of honors and awards from
the Portrait Society, this is the first time his work has been selected as a
finalist. This is a portrait of the Nelsons' oldest child Luke. Nelson's wife
Kim actually had a dream and woke up and told Rich that she saw him "paint
a portrait of Luke in this way" and that he "had to paint it in real
life". It also features their chihuahua puppy Finn'. About the
somewhat counter-intuitive age of the sitter (you don't see a lot of portraits
of teens) Nelson says, "It's interesting to me that we make this transition
from child to adult. It's such a fascinating thing in so many ways. As parents
we have less and less control. I structured this painting with more symbols
than usual. Besides Luke's clothes and things like headphones and wristbands, I
wanted it to have a feeling of 'light' and 'dark', hoping and trusting that he
moves evermore with and towards the light".
You can see the portrait at Nelson's River Arts District
studio located at 352 Depot St. in Asheville, or perhaps at Skyuka Fine Art in
Tryon, NC.
For more information on the Portrait Society and Nelson work visit these sites:
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