Portrait of Father Robert and family

This is a portrait painted for my Priest ,and friend,Father Robert Barcelos and his family. It was a surprise gift for his Mom. This portrait presented some problems and challenges. For one, ONLY photos of their faces were given to me and rather poor quality at that! The lighting proximity to each figure are totally unrelated. I also had a time factor and distance factor (they lived in Fresno,Ca). What I eventually did was virtually "made up" the grouping out of my head... no models or photos were used. This included the clothing and props (the cat is real though, he is Fathers cat at the Rectory!) I had an Idea what I wanted to accomplish in the grouping. I wanted to show a Mother with her sons, and a relationship between the big and little brother, so I had them touching one another. The Dad protectively and lovingly, overlooks the group. It was fairly successful under the circumstances! The smiles.. I have a sort of problem with smiles! (Grins with teeth showing!) They tend to make portraits look too "studio"..like photography. It was a challenge to make this painting look like "art"! But I actually like this portrait. The family was very pleased with it!