ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sophie received her technical training in Florence, Italy, where she studied the portrait painting techniques of the old masters at Charles H Cecil studios.
Now based in Avalon Beach, Sydney, she continues to paint using the traditional methods and materials of the Italian, French and Dutch painters of the renaissance and baroque.
Sophie uses high quality painting materials that she prepares herself in her studio, grinding her own pigments and preparing her own canvases, mediums, and varnishes using traditional methods and recipes. Not only does this practice allow for a more complete control over the performance and quality of one’s materials, it also enables the artist to achieve specific painterly effects used by the masters, the subtleties of which are often difficult to achieve using synthetic modern materials.
Sophie offers offer many options for commissioned portraiture, from her special interest, child portraiture, to portraits of individuals, couples and families, to special occasion portraits such as pregnancy, christening, graduation, engagement, wedding, anniversary and 21st or other significant birthday portraits.
Sometimes the desire for a portrait is as simple and beautiful as the wish to preserve the image of a cherished face at a special age.
Also offered are the full range of official portrait options. Corporate and business/professional portraits, judicial, medical, academic, government portraits; portraits of religious leaders or leaders in the fields of science, politics, philanthropy and the arts.
Sophie is also able to offer posthumous portraits, working from photographs and verbal/written descriptions to create a portrait that is a memory of, and tribute to, someone who has passed on.
Old master copies and renaissance style portraits are other options; ancestral or heirloom portraits can be created from old photographs, or copies can be made of old family paintings.
On the more quirky side, Sophie has a special interest in historical/mythological/ art history inspired portraits, so if you see yourself as Joan of Arc, King Lear, or Boadicea, or imagine yourself emerging from the waves as a Botticelli venus, or pierced with arrows as Saint Sebastian…please feel free to confess!
Sophie can work entirely from life, from a combination or live sittings and photographs, or from photographs alone. Her portrait studio in Avalon is set up for portrait photography, and she can either take her own reference photos, or use photos you already have, provided they are of high enough quality to paint from.
Sophie is also a painter of still life, landscape and figurative work, and exhibits regularly in Sydney.
Her work is represented in private collections in Australia, Europe and the USA.
Sophie’s portrait of author Katerina Cosgrove has been selected as a finalist in the 2010 Moran Portrait Prize.