“Abigail”
40cm x 50cm (16″ x 20″) Oil on W&N canvas texture paper 300gsm.
This is both the last painting in the mini-series and the new one after a long hiatus in painting.
As all others, this portrait is for sale. It was almost finished for six months at least in the fear I didn’t know how to paint any longer. One day last week I did her remaining left arm and hand in about 15 minutes and signed it off. I can’t tell if in fact this arm is any better or worse painted than the rest of her, but I did wonder why couldn’t I finish it before… there is artists for you!
Currans Hill artist Phil Carrero started as an impressionable 16 year old drawing charcoal portraits through the streets of Buenos Aires. He worked his way up from drawing to painting and begun to sell his works around that time. Coming to Australia in 1973 , at the age of 23, Mr Carrero continued his studies in Art and completed an apprenticeship for four months to get himself better acquainted with portraiture painting. Meanwhile, for almost ten years produced and sold many ship portraits and marine paintings. -After that I begun getting around 12 commissions a year for just portraits. That's the point when he begun to make a living out of painting-, he said. He paints in the Traditional, Realistic style ... English and Italian schools, his portraits can resemble the Grand Manner style of the 19th and 20th centuries in England and later, America. (extracted from "Artist has brush with thieves", Macarthur Advertiser, January 2004)