I painted an acrylic portrait of Aidan standing holding onto his beloved horse Cash. Cash sadly passed away last year after 25 years and Aidan misses him terribly. I was commissioned by Aidan’s daughter Orlaith to create this portrait for her dad’s birthday celebration.
The painting is painted with acrylics on stretched canvas at the size of 40 x 30 cm. I used a fine grain canvas surface to paint this portrait. I had one photograph to work from and it was so lovely, that was all I needed to get inspired… Orlaith asked me to remove the bales and electric fencing from the background and to add the rest of her dad’s hat into the painting.
Orlaith, my client, was very happy with the finished painting and so was her Dad when she gifted him with it during his birthday celebration dinner. She took a photo of him holding his painting, which was just so lovely to see.
Oh Ivana, that is stunning!!! Thank you so much!…Hi Ivana, my dad loved the portrait…
Orlaith on her finished commission of her dad with his horse Cash, April 2025, Clane county Kildare
I worked in acrylics as usual and I started with a line sketch in yellow ochre. I moved on to adding colour blocks for the basic painting before adding finer details to the entire surface. I concentrated the detail to Aidan’s face and Cash’s head.
I took some photographs of the finished painting before meeting with my client when she collected the painting. She lives very close to me, so there was no need for posting.
The painting was just the right size to get all the detail in and to capture both Aidan’s and Cash’s personality. I really enjoyed painting the happy smiling man with his favourite horse.
