Lucy is the daughter of a neighbour of mine. Although she was only about nine, or possibly ten years old when I painted this she is taller than me now. I was taken with her very pretty eyes and long blond locks held back with a small ribbon. I just had to paint her, and asked her to sit for me.
Because my studio is rather small, my intention was to execute the painting looking through a large mirror I had on the wall. To give me more space to position my easel without blocking my view of her. However, I soon realised this was not going to be as easy as I had imagined. As I turned towards the mirror I discovered there was nowhere to plant my large studio easel without it getting in the way. It was then that I turned to face Lucy and discovered she has positioned herself on the tall wooden stool looking directly out of the window at the view. It was perfect. "Stay just like that Lucy," I said, "and stay perfectly still." In fact she did. She never flinched a muscle and in about three hours I had completed it... with a short break in between of course.
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