Posthumous portrait: The Pebble

My lovely dad died in 2000.  Whilst retraining as a portrait artist I have found myself thinking a lot about him as he had spent seven years learning to paint portraits in watercolour - a very hard medium to master. 

Thinking about him made me want to reconnect with him and, as I was looking through old transparencies, I discovered a photo I had taken of him when I was small and we had spent a glorious afternoon rock-pooling in Exmouth. 

Dad had in his hand a stone, which he masterfully skimmed across the water while I counted the touchdowns.  It was magical. 

Minutes after posting about this on Facebook, a friend from Sky News contacted me to ask if he could buy it.  He told me it spoke to him as he had done the same with his grandfather, but up in Scotland.  

I was delighted that a moment I shared with my dad, transferred to canvas, could evoke such memories in my friend.