The Smile
Subject : Portrait
Dimensions : 12 x 14 in. (30 x 36 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas board
Year: 2025
Private collection
In the Studio
Time-lapse of the painting process
Excerpt from the Studio Journal
Reflections and notes from the creative process
« Capturing a child’s smile means taking on a formidable opponent: teeth. Too white, and they look artificial. Too gray, and it’s a disaster. Then there are those transitions in the skin — those famous variations of reds, ochres and cooler tones around the nose and cheeks — that bring a face to life… or instantly make it look lifeless if you get them wrong.
Not to mention the expression.
A smile isn’t a line: it’s an entire construction — cheeks, eyes, folds, light — and every brushstroke can either strengthen the sense of life or make it disappear.
And yet, layer by layer, correction by correction, something began to emerge. An expression. An energy. That little mixture of mischief, confidence and joy that cannot be faked.
I believe — and I dare to hope — that I managed to capture what defines him best:
His child’s laughter. »