Welcome!
I hope you are here because you are considering a portrait.

Please send me a quick email at catreinhardt(at)gmail.com if you would like to ask questions, or talk about a portrait option not discussed here. I love to draw and have sold portrait drawings in the past. Depending on the specifics of the request, I am open to working in a much smaller or much larger format.

Everyone has their own process. I do not work fast so make sure to contat me early if this is meant to be a gift. As a mother and a grad student (again) I prefer to have months of lead time.

I hope you will look around the blog and get in touch with any questions you might have.

Toddler Portrait

This painting was done solely from one photograph, although I had a large number to choose from. So, for those who wonder if it can be done, it can.

The Murphy Children

This painting was my first ever collage.  I love this portrait because I think it shows the very different personalities of the three children.  It was great to spend time with the family and learn about their personalities. Mrs. Murphy is really creative herself and she told me to do whatever I wanted. Her oldest daughter had already had a portrait done earlier. With that said, I felt like it allowed me to paint her more for her personality. When I spent time in their home taking photos of the kids, I was struck by how completely different their personalities were. I got this shot of her daughter almost by accident as she stood opening the mail on the front porch while I tried to get the boys to both look at me at the same time. I felt like the pose said something about her quiet maturity in contrast to their energy. The collage style allowed me to have the contrasting personalities and colors expressed in a small space.

I will always have a special place in my heart for this portrait .

The Malloy Portrait

This portrait of the Malloy family is a collage of different drawings and photographs I made during an afternoon at their home. I think collages are wonderful, because they allow me to catch mannerisms and gestures particular to each subject. The Malloys are wonderful because they gave me a lot of leeway in regards to what to do for their portrait.

The Malloy's are such a neat family and I had the luxury of knowing a little about their personalities. Their gorgeous home and the wonderful light throughout were a great inspiration for the colors. During my visit, I spent time taking photographs not only of the family but also of their home in hopes of finding some personal objects that I could incorporate. The large circular shape in the middle is a Ferris wheel from Ben's model train. Ben and his father have spent countless hours building this model world. The imagery of the model train in their basement was too great to pass up. The butterfly can be found on the wall of their sunroom, but I felt like it was begging to fly. Finally, they wanted all three dogs in this portrait but I worried that it would seem overrun and busy, so I focused predominantly on one, and then kind of snuck the others in.
If you would enjoy seeing different parts of your home in a portrait and I am unable to be i your home, I would love to have pictures of your home to reference and peruse for interesting elements...or you can pick out things that might be meaningful to you.