If you are interested in commissioning a portrait, please email diane@smilingspider.co.uk or contact me via facebook or instagram with any initial thoughts.
I always start a portrait from life, ideally with a first sitting of 3-4 hours for a painting. I can then continue with further sittings or may be able to continue from my own photographs if time does not allow this. Paintings are normally produced in oil on canvas or drawings in charcoal on paper.
Drawings will normally start from about £200 and paintings from £450, but this depends on size and location.
Here are a few reviews from previous commissions:
It was a delight to deal with Diane Firth on the commission of 5 portraits of longstanding Fellows of Robinson College, Cambridge. After seeing the high quality of Diane’s previous work, we were excited to give her this important commission. Diane has been extremely accommodating with our projected timescale, as well as the constrained schedules of the portrait subjects. Feedback from the subjects about the sitting process was universally positive, and we are very pleased with the high quality portraits that Diane produced, which even exceeded the requirements for this challenging commission. Diane is a pleasure to work with, and I thoroughly recommend her work.
Dr Gary Doherty
Chair
Visual Arts Committee
Robinson College, Cambridge
Diane painted my daughters (aged 5 and 4) as a surprise birthday present for my wife. They now hang in our bedroom as the last thing we see before we turn the lights out. They are great and we love them. Jemima and Evie loved being photo’d at Diane’s house and she somehow managed to get them to pose for some beautiful pictures – something we have never managed. What really amazes me is that whilst she hasn’t painted a particular photo, she has captured the character and expression of the girls to a tee. A superstar!
The Portrait Experience with Diane Firth
It is well rehearsed that portraits are some combination of depicting the physical and portraying the psychological. It was clear to me that Diane was assiduous in the first, sizing my face and proportions up, and engaged with the second. But in talking to me while doing preliminary sketches Diane was getting to know me while observing me and my range of facial expressions.
The interesting aspect was in gaining a characteristic pose and Diane had been looking at photographs of me which I had picked for my websites and Facebook page. The pose I adopted was one of a resting face, gazing gently forward, in fact I focussed on a spot on the edge of her easel with her face in view beyond and I relaxed in a pose I knew I could keep up.
The sittings were two sessions of 3 hours each with breaks to get up and walk around as well as chat. The time passed well while I filled my head with quiet contemplative thoughts. The result was most interesting. ‘what a lovely quiet, thoughtful portrait with sparkly eyes’ and ‘she has captured your kindly, contemplative and thoughtful side’. I am glad that I do have friends who recognised the particular attributes of me which Diane so admirably portrayed.
Dr Stephen Trudgill
Emeritus fellow- Robinson College.