Experience Post- Stanley Rayfield

Stanley Rayfield is a former student of my art teacher, Coach Hall. He grew up in Virginia and is a portrait artist. He came to our school and gave a lecture discussing a number of aspects of his art career. I'm going to discuss what stuck with me most. Firstly, he is an amazing portrait artist. He renders people beautifully. He also showed some paintings that he did of some pets, noting that people were often more likely to get their pet painted than themself. I thought this was funny because I have encountered the same thing. I especially loved the painting of some golden retrievers in a pool that he showed. I'm going to attach a photo below. The other picture I attached is a self portrait he made. I thought it was funny that his teachers told him to stop making self-portraits. He was really good at them, but he also seems to be able to paint anything and anyone. It's interesting that he spent so long in school for illustration. I was surprised by the amount of time he put into his paintings. It's very impressive. I hate spending 6 hours on one painting, let alone on just the under painting. Although, my paintings aren't really much more developed than his under paintings. He talked a lot about the amount of work and time that he puts in. My question would be how much it feels like work for him. He seems very driven, but I wonder how enjoyable the process is for him. Another thing to note is that he's painting Governor Northam, and put some cool little details in the work.