Portrait of Rod

Portrait of Rod Pizarro ©Brenda Clews, 2019. 18” x 24”, oil on canvas.

He's the guy at the TV studio who decides which shot when during a game. It's super intense concentration, high-paced, not many people could do it, and so the colours around him, on his face, kind of represent that bustling high focus and all the action he's sending out over the airwaves, plus the light from the screens on his face, which are like chunks of photons.


Through it all, he's this smiling, calm guy, or that's how he appears to me, but the world he inhabits during his working life remains with him — the colours, movement, action, sports fields dancing around him in his aura.

I've drawn Rod before. He came over late November 2018 and we did a photo shoot. From those photos, I began a commissioned painting. First a throw-the-paint-down underpainting, and then a 2nd iteration of the same. Though he had commissioned the portrait to be hopefully ready by his 50th birthday at the end of February, the month came and went. It wasn't until July, when I finally had studio space to work in, that I was able to finish it over about 5 days.

He says he loves it, and what more could a portrait painter wish for! A wonderful man and very honoured to be asked to paint a portrait of him for his 50th - good news is, he's still 50!
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