A Portrait From the Past

Painted Portrait

Kirstyn had been gathering family photos for years, and not just her own. Photos, old scans, low-res images passed around and saved on people’s phones for decades. The goal was a collage, with her grandmother at the center. The matriarch, already passed.

The problem was the photo she loved most. The one that captured her grandmother the way she remembered her. It was too low-res to use, let alone anchor a fine art piece.

So Anthony used other reference photos to paint her grandmother’s face from scratch. Not a filter, not an upscale. A portrait built by hand, placed at the center of a collage that pulled the whole family into a single piece. The technically hardest part, and the most important part to get right.

Kirstyn kept it a surprise. She shared it first. Anthony had to wait.

Her dad took his time deciding where it belonged. When it finally went up, Kirstyn tagged half the family.