Monthly Archives: January 2018

A wedding gift couples portrait on the third day of the new year.

A and C wedding portrait painted by Suzanne Forbes Jan 3 2018Our friend A. comes to Germany for a certain hacker event every year, eleven years running.

Every year he says he’s not coming to Berlin for New Year’s Eve afterwards, and every year I hear his voice in the hallway at our Hacker Open House on New Year’s Day.A and C wedding portrait by Suzanne Forbes Jan 3 2018

This year he brought his bride to be.

And for the second year running, a box of still warm cinnamon rolls from Zeit für Brot nearby. I like both of these and wish both to become tradition!

A and C WIP by Suzanne Forbes Jan 3 2018I told them that of course we had to paint a wedding portrait, and we could do it in four hours or less.

They promptly agreed and spent the day on January 3 hitting Berlin goth shops for appropriate attire.

A and C wedding portrait A detail by Suzanne Forbes Jan 3 2018A and C wedding portrait A detail by Suzanne Forbes Jan 3 2018(Not everyone chooses the route of D & E, who wore their underwear for their New Year’s wedding portrait!)

A and C wedding portrait C detail by Suzanne Forbes Jan 3 2018I loved having a little time to get to know C., who is an amazing gift to the Bay Area community.

I am so happy for these two and the adventures that lie ahead of them as a family. The portrait was started and finished in three hours, all in, plus an additional hour for talking and planning beforehand. Making it my first Four Hour Portrait of a couple in many years!

The reason I can spontaneously make a work like this is that I am a Patreon-powered artist.

My amazing Patrons on Patreon, a subscription platform for supporting artists, contribute money every month to make it possible for me to make art. As a disabled person, I wouldn’t be able to be a working artist without Patreon. You can help, for as little as a dollar a month!

Click here to join the team who makes my work happen.

Work in Progress: a second sitting for Q and Companion.

q and p Jan 2 2018 by Suzanne ForbesFinally got a chance to have another sitting with our friend Quinn and her companion.

CU WIP Q and P by Suzanne Forbes Jan 02 2018Who I refer to as P. or PASR, which is a private joke between two women nearly of an age. We are both much alike and extremely different, she and I.

We’ve had uncannily similar traumas, and we each have our own ways of surviving them. She is completely an LA girl, and I am a New Yorker for life, but we are both robust survivors, absurdly resilient and determinedly creative.

I posed them in the library instead of the salon because the palette suits her Autumn coloring best; this sitting was extra special because her extraordinary child was with us. Ignoring us, like any reasonable teen would!

The day before we painted I said to her, you were one of the reasons I gave my guy a shot.

I figured any guy who had a woman friend like you had to be a guy worth checking out.

“Remember what I said when you got married?” she said, and we laughed. Knowing remarkable people over a lifetime is the first greatest treasure of life. Watching their remarkable children grow up is the second greatest.

Detail WIP Q and P by Suzanne Forbes Jan 02 2018