Why should you hang the portrait of a stranger?
Has this question ever occurred to you? Why would you hang a painting of someone you don’t know?
It seems weird at first, but I’ll tell you why you should absolutely hang a portrait of a stranger in your home.
Portraits are more than an image of a person. They are always pieces of interpretation, of expression. When I painted “Girl in Colour” (image above), I didn’t know who she was, I had never met her. All I knew of her was what I could see on the reference picture I found online: a beautiful girl sat in front of a cityscape, smiling over her shoulder into my soul.
Despite not knowing her personally, you feel something from her presence, which I captured in the painting. You feel positivity, you feel encouragement, you feel happiness, and you feel colourfulness.
Sometimes that is just exactly what you need from an art piece in your home. It doesn’t need to be someone that you know, it doesn’t need to be a painting of yourself! Sometimes all you need is something to make you smile and to make you feel good. All you need is to feel this specific energy radiating from the painting every time you glance over it hanging on your wall.
So now I’m asking again: would you hang a portrait of someone you don’t know?