A couple years ago I was talking to another PleinAire Artist who was also a teacher. He made a comment that if you knew how to do a good landscape, understood lighting and shading it would transfer to painting portraits. I believe this is true at a physical level. I find the added complication to portraits is capturing the soul of the person. How do you capture an 86 year old man who was a well educated engineer, served his country, faithful to my mom and had 9 children. A man of deep commitment and faith. We had a shared love of nature. He was proud of me coming full circle, raising a family of my own and now having the time to get back to my first love of art. Ive seen in my children some of my fathers traits. As I was visiting my grieving mom,, I could see she saw him in me.