Portrait of an amazing couple

This painting was started en plein air.  Luckily it was a hot day without any wind, which was just as well as we had to get the 4' x 3' canvas with a sturdy easel and my kit all the way down to the lake in the buggy.

I first met Dennis and Charlotte when I was Artist in Residence on a World Cruise in 2012.  As soon as I had finished a public lecture on my portraiture Dennis whizzed up in his wheelchair and declared that he wanted a portrait of his beautiful wife Charlotte.  After getting to know them over the next few months on board I was told their remarkable story.  Dennis was seriously injured in an accident on his father's cattle ranch in Kenya only a few years into their marriage, which left him confined to a wheelchair from that time. Facing this huge challenge undaunted they have built a lifestyle together which has included creating and designing this lake with it's magical loggia, and farming a vineyard.

I wanted to put them both in the picture, with their beloved little dog,  as a celebration of their close relationship and their triumph over insuperable odds.

Susan Edwards contact: paintingalive@live.co.uk