Painting this portrait was a lovely experience because I knew I was painting a happy memory.  I recently finished the portrait of this couple on vacation in Santorini, Greece. My reference was a their vacation photo (shown below). It shows them them riding a motorbike along a coast road, and wearing sunglasses and helmets. I tried to capture the sense of the place:  the bright sun, blue water and sky of Greece.  I emphasized the scenery reflected in the sunglasses. Painting the helmets and sunglasses was a new challenge for me, but as I worked, I became increasingly convinced of the wisdom of choosing this snapshot for  a portrait because it is such a happy moment.  So above all, I tried to capture the happiness of the moment, and create a keepsake from this happy memory.

Here is the vacation snapshot that I used for my reference photo.