Patrick Perrotto is my friend. He is a cool dude. One of my favorites. Someone who has been a fan and supporter of my artwork from the moment I met him. So a few weeks ago when his lovely girlfriend, Christine Rochelle, asked me to do a painting for him as her Christmas present to him, I couldn't have been more excited for the opportunity to paint something for him. To make it better, she was asking me to paint a painting of him.
Pat is a huge fisher. This past year, he took a trip to Cuttyhunk, MA to go fishing with some buddies. Many pictures came out of the trip, but the one that Christine liked most was one of Pat out in the middle of the water, fishing from some jetti rocks that are almost completely underwater. She emailed me the photo and asked me to paint my version of it.
Here is the picture:
And this is what I came up with:
It was a fun project to work on. First off, it was for Pat. So that ruled. It was also for Christine who, upon hanging out with more and more lately, is one awesome lady. And it allowed me to be a part of their Christmas magic, which was very cool for me.
It was also a challenge. When I got the picture, at first I was like "I can do that!". Two weeks later with the canvas hardly painted and Christmas fast approaching, it changed to "Can I do that?" I knew the most important and challenging part was going to be giving life to the water. I needed it to look like the water was moving, like it was softly crashing into the rocks around Pat as he fished. It took a calming day at my parents house while watching a Law & Order SVU Season 12 marathon to get it.
After the hand off to Christine, I anxiously awaited the report of how Pat liked it. Christine said after opening only a corner Pat said "You got a Julie painting!", then realized it was him, then walked all around the apartment trying to figure out where to hang it. I can't wait to go to their place and see it too!