MARTIN FREGEAU

In the studio

Time-lapse of the painting process

Excerpt from the Studio Journal

Reflections and notes from the creative process

“Portraits are, as everyone knows, a formidable challenge. For a first portrait ever, it can be a somewhat dizzying experience..

So I began the first sitting with a slight knot in my stomach.

It turned out to be quite memorable.

I quickly discovered that getting a ten-year-old child to sit still, even for a short period of time, is nothing short of an Olympic event. Short of considering a dose of curare — an option ultimately dismissed for ethical and legal reasons — keeping the model still remained… somewhat relative.

After several almost Kafkaesque sittings, involving hair adjustments, book repositioning, debates over the heroic angle of the gaze and the appropriate dramatic intensity of reading Harry Potter, a consensus eventually emerged between the model, the model’s mother and… the painter.

And so the official portrait began.

I must nevertheless admit one thing: despite all the commotion, there was something profoundly right about the scene — a child immersed in a novel that fuels his imagination. And if I ultimately accepted the challenge, perhaps it was because there is no subject more demanding… nor more precious.”