Rosemary Aged Eight

A pastel portrait of my daughter Rosemary aged eight. We had spent a summer day at the beach at Sommers with our friends the Scott family when I snapped a picture of Rosemary. Sometime later I had an hour to spare in an evening art class and decided to do a rapid sketch. I chose warm colours on red paper to heighten the sense of summer heat, and applied rapid, loose pastel strokes to communicate the energy and excitement of a little girl playing with friends. More than twenty years later and it remains one of my favourite portrait sketches.