JESSICA   Painted in oils on canvass.   I used some of our modern computer technology to prepare this painting! The original picture was taken with my digital camera while we were enjoying one of our annual morris walking weekends, from Ambleside in the Lake District. She has a lovely face, but it was the way the breeze was blowing her hair around that induced me to try painting her. Using the technology that I have at my disposal, I 'cropped' her out from the picture, and obliterated the background with a black spray. I then developed the painting on canvass with the 'computerised' picture alongside it. I used brushes for the bulk of the work, but I finished off the hair by overlaying it all with thin lines of almost pure pigment with very little oil, using the edge of a pear-shaped palette knife.   To the right is the original picture that I took of Jessica, which was not particularly aimed at her but of the whole group crossing a bridge! To her right I've only captured half of her friend, Jenny. (Sorry Jenny!) It was a difficult shot to take with everyone moving towards me! The lower picture is of Jessica posing in front of the painting in the Williamson Art gallery in Birkenhead, during the exhibition pre-view, with her mum and brother.