Throughout her career Carol has received regular commissions to create portraits of some of the leading figures from public life, society, sport and the entertainment world in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The artist’s gift as a portraitist is well recognised and she has undertaken commissions on behalf of institutions such as the Ulster Museum, Trinity College Dublin, the Northern Ireland Assembly and Windsor Castle.
Her sitters have included two presidents of Ireland, the internationally renowned flautist Sir James Galway and Lord Eames, Archbishop of Armagh.
COMMISSIONING A PORTRAIT
You are welcome to contact Carol directly by phone or email (to email please use the ‘contact tab’ at the top of the page).
THE PROCESS
“I like to meet informally over coffee or lunch to get an empathetic connection with the sitter. We will discuss possible poses, settings, clothing and so on so the sitter has time to consider what they would like to present, in visual terms.
“Our second meeting will hopefully be in situ, and with a choice of clothing; I take as many informal photographs at this stage to give us a many options as possible.
“At a third meeting we discuss the photographs, what the sitter likes and dislikes and why. If this meeting is in my studio I also like to do a painted sketch. We then decide on pose and setting and then I do more photographs.
“I then work up scale drawings and order the specific size of linen canvas to be made and prepared. I rough up drawings onto the canvas and painting starts.
“Proper sittings then begin. The average is around five, usually once a fortnight with me working from the photographs between sittings.
“I like to allow an average of two to two-and-a-half months for an average-sized portrait (30×20 inches and a little longer for a large portrait.
“The time taken to complete the commission also depends on the sitter’s availability. Other influencing factors are natural – poor light in winter; the drying of oil paint (much slower in winter, which lengthens the process of working in many layers, as I do with portraits).”