Painting a Triptych

I had never painted a triptych before.

Then I got a request from a client in Pittsburgh that led to one of my more creative challenges. I needed to come up with a composition of three individual paintings that could hang together as one piece.

The first thing I did was visit the client. I measured the room where she planned to hang the painting and met her three children. That gave me a chance to think about how to convey their personalities.

We discussed doing an outdoor portrait, but it was raining. Everyone was dressed and excited so we assembled in the dining room. The room was a rich red, with light streaming in from the large front windows. I arranged three chairs in a semi-circle.

I was excited by the drama created by the light, how it struck the young girl’s hair and caused it to glow. I love redheads!

The oldest boy sat back, exuding confidence. The younger brother laughed and struck an animated pose. Their sister smiled gently, trying to figure out what I wanted. Watching them, the idea for a composition took shape.

I imagined them posing side-by-side in the dining room. There would be three panels but since they would be in the same room each painting would flow naturally into the next. I produced this small sketch.

I started with the youngest member of the family. I put him in the middle of the portrait because he seemed to be the center of attention. He was always on stage entertaining the family.

I tried to capture his cherubic smile and the boyishness he exuded when he curled up his feet on the chair.

Next I focused on their daughter. I decided to put her on the left because she was close to a window that illuminated her beautiful red hair.

Her legs were crossed elegantly. She sat up straight, composed and mature, but her feet conveyed her energy and playfulness.

There were so many colors in her hair, deep yellows, ochre, greens and reds. At one point I turned the canvas upside down to focus solely on the play of color notes.

When I turned to the older son, I wanted to capture his gentle and thoughtful nature. He was clearly the caretaker of his younger siblings.

I included a sense of motion and tried to convey both his maturity and the insistence of youth with a simple gesture: tugging his finger, anxious to get going, to do big things in life.

In the final version I connected the three portraits in a subtle way. The daughter’s right foot extends into the middle panel, as does the older brother’s knee. That way they paintings are both separate and connected. If they ever hang separately, it will be a small hint that something is missing.

The triptych was prominent in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It has also been used in the modern era. A 1969 triptych by Francis Bacon called Three Studies of Lucien Fraud sold at auction for $142 million in 2012. That record was broken in May 2015 when Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting Les Femme d’Algers sold for $179 million.

During a recent visit to London I was delighted to discover that my client was on the cutting edge. I saw an an enormous triptych of three children in the Saatchi Gallery.

I am always looking for commissions that push me to grow as an artist and this one did that.

Here is the painting hanging in their home: