From earliest times the portrait, and especially portraits of children, has been considered a means to immortality and many cultures have attributed magical properties to the portrait. The Egyptians made sculptured monuments that were idealized portraits of their monarchs intended to grant them immortality. In Asia this religious use of the portrait was widespread until the 15th century when realistic Western portraiture began to influence Eastern art.
The art of portraiture was fully realised in Europe by such masters as Holbein, Titian and Tintoretto thereby increasing enormously the compositional possibilities and the birth of the portrait as we know it today. Children portraits are especially rewarding as I am very much capturing a moment in time when their facial features are so rapidly changing. I can work from sittings in my studio, from photographs, or very often a combination of both.
