Jaime, 20"x16" oil on linen
Collection of Ms. Jaime O'Connor

Jaime is chairperson of the humanities and sciences department at the Academy, in charge of the general education classes in the curriculum.


For her second painting session, Jaime brought with her a fine blue scarf she bought on her trip to England. She said it had a certain sentimental value for her. She said she was going with a "gypsy" look. Marcie said Jaime looked as if she was about to tell us our future. Now only if we had a crystal ball.


The scarf had an interesting decoration that ran along above her forehead. I wanted to paint it on the scarf but I ran out of time. I could have just suggested a decoration from memory but I decided not to.


Before Jaime arrived in the classroom, I was going to use a small canvas of 14"x11". But when I saw her don the scarf and let the long ends rest in front of her shoulders, I decided to use a larger canvas to accommodate the flow of the scarf.


Unlike with painting of Stu, I carried the drawing longer in this painting to establish the clear framework before I started working with colors. I find it nice to mix up different approaches at times.

I am not sure whether Jaime's eyes are as intensely blue as I painted them; I couldn't see them quite well. Regardless, I borrowed some blue from her scarf to exaggerate the intensity of her left eye and tie it in with the scarf.


It was fun to paint her earring with a sparkling highlight, though it seems that earrings and bracelets can be such a cliché in many paintings of women.