Kelli No6 Painting

With a degree in photography, Stephen Harkola’s portrait paintings usually begin with a live model photo shoot to capture poses. Stephen explains that his portraits have historically been more representational, requiring tighter media control. Over time, that has been changing with further abstraction, influenced by his abstract landscape work, also on Saatchi at . While he uses a camera and software in all phases of his portrait artwork, he explains “Something better happens when I physically paint, and when I finally invoke a connection with another person, far deeper than what I can accomplish with a camera, there is nothing better in this world.” Stephens new mixed media Giclee's bridge the digital world, making original large format paintings on canvas available, at an affordable price.