More Wonderful Women

When I first opened my boutique/Workshop, The Art of Beauty by Linda Mason   in Soho NY  in 1998. I decided to combine everything I loved. At the time everyone told me to focus  focus..and well meaning friends would come along and “merchandise” the boutique. They didn’t realize that the south facing shop filled with beautiful bright  sunlight most of the day and I had chosen it because of that beautiful light, but it meant there were certain things I just couldn’t put in the window. I didn’t tell many of my old workmates that I had opened a shop. We didn’t have facebook in 1998. But Ann Bezamat one of the beautiful models I had worked with frequently in Paris from the age of 15, most  notably with the photographer Sarah Moon, discovered the shop and came to visit me. She loved the paintings and commissioned a portrait of herself and then of her sons. These were the first commissions I had done. Ann brought me luck, as my portrait business grew quickly. You can see many of them at www.lindamasongallery.com  and I love doing them. Having a painting of someone you love is quite different from a photograph. You look at a photo and say that was then. You look at a painting and study it to find the person you thought you knew and you discover things about them and rarely think about the age they were at .