...this is how a commissioned oil portrait should look when painted from life.... The creamy, flawless flesh of youth is painted to perfection. The expression is flattering, lively and lifelike, not emotionally dead as in all of today’s photographically rendered portraits that the public pays darn good money for. The drawing is excellent and the details subordinate to the sitter’s lovely countenance. The pale color theme is unobtrusive, soothing and exquisite. Have you ever seen a portrait painted in the last 30 years that looked as good? I didn’t think so. This portrait radiates all the bloom of life emanating from this beautiful young woman, and it is a look that no photograph could ever capture. Where and why have we gone wrong! ... Is it simply that we lack the ability to paint this well? Are we just not interested in capturing the emotional state of the sitter in front of us? Has the photograph rendered us... (http://paintinglifestories.blogspot.nl/2013_06_01_archive.html)