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Gwen Sense
Oil on canvas
20″ x 16″
I met Gwen when she was in her sixties and painted this portrait of her for her daughter several years later. I painted it from a tiny, damaged B&W photograph that I failed to make a copy of, and snapped this grainy picture just before I delivered it.
Gwen was sitting on some nondescript box in the photo. I changed the box to a piano bench, because I knew Gwen to be an excellent pianist and singer, a beautiful talented woman, even into her seventies, who had enjoyed an early career as a nightclub singer.
Gwen had very curly hair, almost frizzy. It never wanted to stay in place. You can see in the painting, though freshly coifed for the photographer, her hair was already starting to poof up on top and come undone.
Cancer claimed this wonderful lady not long after I painted this portrait.