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   Portraits follow a variety of paths to end up on the easel, and this one came to me via a friend who commissioned this painting of Christian, a third party's son. Christian's family lives in Colorado, a couple of time zones from me, so all of the communications had to take place electronically, where one is not afforded the luxury of all the cues offered with a face to face meeting.  Now- given all the hops, skips, and jumps here, one might have a reasonably  thought that the painting would also have a indistinct, if not totally jumbled (think a game of telegraph where the message gets more and more garbled as it makes its way down the line) outcome, but that was definitely not the case here: Christian came through clear as a bell.

   I never met Christian in life. What I know of him comes from the remembrances offered by his parents and his siblings, the photographs that he shared, a peek into his life afforded through social media, and the introduction to him offered by that mutual friend who approached me about the portrait. I never met Christian in life, but having spent many weeks in the studio with him, I certainly would have liked to. We (and indeed it is a "we"- portraits are always collaborations) chose to place him in one of his favorite spots for this venture, and I think he would have liked that. He might not have told me- I'm betting that Christian always had more to say than he voiced.

   I hope the portrait shows his spirit true.