Love the wonderful portraits shared here! Each one tells its own unique story.

I can't imagine collecting Native American art and not having many portraits of "strangers" on the walls. I have a lot of people hanging around, some of whom were actual living, breathing humans turned into paintings or photos, and others likely just an artist's representation of a combination of characters. At any rate, I love living with them.

Great topic❣️ This is a picture of my hubby's father and his family. His father is on the top of the stairs with his twin brother. I never met the rest of the kids ; they are his aunts and uncles. God bless his grandmother for raising 6 kids.

I suppose The Matador counts.....

Currently at our beach cottage — I’ve got a couple here. Sorry for odd angles; trying to take pics w/out the glare.

I was thinking no, but I do have this one. I have some other paintings that have people, but not as portraits.

Ha, one more!

I’m away from home right now, so no picture. I have a picture of a young girl with huge eyes, vaguely in the style of Margaret Keane. Mine was painted by Ginny Amerine, a San Antonio artist. My aunt bought it for me in the early 70s. We’ve always called the painting “Ginny.” If the artist named it otherwise, we are unaware of the title. Because I find it kinda kitschy, I’ve kept it hidden for years. The interior decorator I’ve been working with likes it and has chosen to hang it in the guest room. I think she has chosen to use it for the colors more than the subject matter.

This is my master bathroom. I know nothing about the subject or the artist but thought the painting was striking and I liked the colors. I bought it as a present for my husband from the local auction house. This painting, along with a large painting of a partially clad woman, sold for $25 so I couldn't go too wrong, even if he decided he didn't like it.

Wonderful blog post on use of portraiture in interior design:

http://jpdschoolofdesign.blogspot.com/search/label/Portraits

Portraits of strangers? Why yes, I guess I do.

Girl With Braids was in the house where I grew up (obviously not original) and she just feels a part of my life because she's always been with me.

Mexican Dancer - not technically a portrait though

Girl and Flowers

I bought this gentleman from an online Goodwill auction. Not sure why he spoke to me but I think of him as a French artisan at the end of a long day.

I used to have a really quite well done portrait of a hobo clown but my husband made me get rid of it. It was 8/10 creepy, to be fair.

kculbers, great old photo. I love those old family pictures! I have six children too so I especially like it 😜

I have the Laughing Cavalier by Fran Hals hanging on the wall of the stairway going upstairs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_Cavalier

Back at home...

My favorite, from Santa Fe:

From Charleston, because she looked like me (DH called the gallery after we got home and had it shipped for Mother’s Day):

In my home office:

I don't have them hanging up yet, but I have some pencil drawings and prints done by a friend of mine, and I believe they're all done from those...free rights pictures or whatever, so nobody she knew, just people that had something about them she wanted to draw/paint. And then that had something about them that I wanted to own them and eventually hang them up.

Well... I have a reproduction of my favorite Van Gogh painting, that night time cafe scene, on a wall. That's the only thing with unknown humans in the image.

Oops, I forgot... I have a modern art rendition of the 3 queens of Scotland in the living room!!

[see above] Ginny. 36x24, acrylic on board. Does it scream 1970s kitsch or what?

Here are some photos, and I discovered I'd forgotten about a couple:

The Three Queens of Scotland. It is an original. Dad bought this and I always loved it. My brother loved the other modern art item he had - which I hated - so it was easy to divide the paintings up when Dad passed. It is much more vibrantly colorful in person.

The van Gogh piece:

And a couple more: ancient Egyptian divinities, and not necessarily people? This was done on papyrus and I got it at a Coptic Christian church fair.

And, lastly: For the office room light switch.

I have her in the bathroom above the toilet...

HA! Best place I’ve heard of for that genre!

When I redid my mother's bathroom in 1988, I used white and black tile with a red border, and I put up some silvery gray wallpaper above the tiled area that had a bamboo pattern that was textured rather than printed, and so you could only see the bamboo when the light hit it a certain way, and so it was very subtle. I also hung a couple of masks of Japanese women that I had bought in Japantown in San Francisco that looked like this. My father promptly took them down because, as he said, he did not want Chinese women watching him take a bath. Then I told him that they were Japanese instead of Chinese, and he said that was even worse, because of WWII. Anyway, I had to keep the masks myself. They were not cheap!

Our living room has multiple portraits: my ancestors from the mid 1850’s, a print by my favorite New Yorker cover artist Kadir Nelson, a Cindy Sherman (postcard framed) below the mirror that reflects the ancestors portraits. All placed with intention in the room. Upstairs we have some portraits of my immediate family, but none downstairs. My teens would die of embarrassment!

Bringing this thread back up because I found a photo of my creepy clown painting!! But come in … it’s quite well done, don’t you think? My husband forced me to give it away.

Ugh, Robo, I hate clowns!!!!

I have this print hanging in our Lake Cabin.

I have been asked, more then once, if the little girl is me.

That picture looks way too old to be a photo of you! I would guess that it's from around 1900, judging from the shoes and dress.

Yes @Lars, I‘m old but not that old. 😊

That is such a cool photo!

Yes, a number of them, but this is my favorite. we call it “Grandfather”. My DH is part English and part Chickasaw. In many ways he resembles this wise man, and that’s why we all love it so much. DH’s face is slimmer, though. The cheekbones and nose especially are his, though. That Chickasaw great+ grandfather was a great, and revered tribal leader. DH’s other grandfather was the younger son of an Englishman who came to America with dreams of becoming a cowboy. And, that he became. DH gets his light blond hair and green eyes from that grandfather. His gorgeous bone structure (and inability to grow a mustache or beard) from his NA grandfathe LOL)! Anyhoo, the Cowboy married the Chickasaw leader’s daughter, and along came my wonderful FIL, and my DH. and, that is why this ”stranger” is so precious to me. To us.

*For some reason I’m unable to get my photo to upload here! Sorry.

Enjoyed perusing this thread. Then I realized it was months old and had been revived by a spammer.

Since I'm here I'll add a couple from my collection.

George Ohr -- The Mad Potter of Biloxi

Judi, I was surprised also, but I do like your portraits and am glad you posted them. The second one reminds me of portraits that my friend Daniel in San Francisco used to do. I posted one he did of me. Daniel was the last person I lived with in SF. His brother Bernard lived with me in Venice for a while, and Bernard is also an artist, but he does not to portraits - unless you count birds.

Lol, my only portraits currently are the oil portraits done of each child at age 4 (before the baby teeth fall out and those overly-large, pre-orthodontia teeth appear. 😂) I love them and would run back into a burning house to save them.

However, apparently i am about to acquire this old portrait from my parent’s house that used to preside over the very fancy parlor at my great-auntie’s house. I have no idea where to put this lady in my house, and not super excited to become her current caretaker, frankly. 😂 I’ll probably ask for y’all’s advice.

I hang paintings I don't like in the garage.

I think my mama & Aunt Edie would haunt me if i did that Lars! 😂

Nini804, do you have a back stairway? I’ve found that is a good place to ”hide” pictures you aren’t fond of.

I'll happily take the opportunity to post more of my art. This lady now hangs in my kitchen.

These (Frida Kahlo and la Calavera Catrina) are in my living room. They are back painted on glass by California artist Calivilca (https://calivilca.square.site/). They are only about 4x4".

Nope. I have lots of framed photos of people i know. Not crazy about art with humans, other than in museums and churches.

Way back when Lars first started this thread, I wrote about this original of ours, but the photo of it never showed up. Well, I’m trying again!

My latest. I couldn't leave him behind. (Please excuse the glare and the crooked picture!)

Yes I do: Klimt’s Lady in Gold (a tapestry).

Only one. Her name is Flora and it is a Baxter print, which I bought in a crowded antique shop in Stow On the Wold, in England. The proprietor was was a lovely older gent who loved all his things and took great pride in explaining what a Baxter print was. When I spoke of my years in the screenprinting industry, he insisted I take her for much less than the marked price because he "loves to see his things go to those that will appreciate them. Baxter prints refer to the method used; "George Baxter, who was trained as a lithographer and engraver, developed a process to produce colour prints from blocks and plates using oil-based inks. His aim was to provide good, inexpensive prints for popular sale, and to imitate oil painting."

(The white, right angle image is the door casing reflecting.)

just one, a painting I did in the early 2000s. I used to have more portraits but they didn't jive with my increasingly modern tastes. I also used to have a lot more of my own artwork up, but it felt kind of weird. this one is my favorite.

I hang paintings I don't like in the garage.

I do that too! but it's art I still like but not enough to put in the house. I even have a vintage playboy up, which I have to cover when certain people visit, haha. the workshop feels perfect for something like that. it's mine, not my husband's.

I should have said that I hang paintings that I don't like as much in the garage - I do still like them or else I would not have them. However, we still have many that are stacked (vertically) in the garage because we do not have wall space to hang them.

I made a gallery wall last year....for my husbands "man cave"...ALL the photos are of him.

I have no portraits of strangers in my home. I usually find them to be creepy.

Maybe not a portrait per se, but I have this "Woman" in my house.

I'm glad the spam has been removed but still weirdly happy to see this thread back at the top so I can revisit it.

I’ve posted this link to the ise of portraiture in interior design before but it bears a repeat performance 🙂 From Joseph Paul Davis’ Master Class blog

https://josephpauldavisinteriors.com/blogs/news/portraits?_pos=1&_sid=5d42e9588&_ss=r

In my own home I have many silhouettes displayed together in a bedroom wall. I love silhouettes, especially the vintage and antique. For a few years we had a portrait of one of DH’s forebears hanging here; it was a very good work by a known artist of the general in his uniform from the Spanish American War. Unfortunately it looked far too much like the Civil War confederate uniform and I always felt compelled to tell people it wasn't. We gave it to our eldest son, who was happy to have it.

Aside from portraits of our children I also have a charcoal pencil drawing of my father and a colored pencil drawing of my mother, so we have both strangers and loved ones well represented.

"Todd Anderson" is a repeat spammer. Please flag.