COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – On the walls of the third-floor rotunda at the Colorado State Capitol hang portraits of all 43 U.S. presidents, and in just a few months, Colorado Springs artist Sarah Boardman will have completed the 44th.
Boardman said she’s thrilled that she’ll paint President Barack Obama’s portrait for the state Capitol.
“It’s quite an honor to do this,” said Boardman.
Boardman, 63, beat out 83 other painters in January for the portrait commission, but it took a state committee nine months to raise her $10,000 fee, which comes from private donations. Boardman signed a contract Nov. 5, and started work three days later.
Jil Rosentrater, a spokeswoman for the committee that chose Boardman, said Boardman’s experience and style were important factors in the decision, but that her Colorado residency helped seal the deal.
“She’s a Colorado artist, and that meant a lot to the committee,” Rosentrater said. Boardman’s first step is to create a simple drawing of Obama, based on a handful of photos of the president. The committee will have to approve the sketch, and then she’ll begin painting. She plans to submit the drawing to the committee next week.
“A very important part of this project is to blend this in with the other portraits, to make it work with the others as a series,” Boardman explained. “I need to prove to them that this will work.”
Boardman, a British national, moved to Colorado Springs in 1993 when her husband, then a master warrant officer in the Army, was transferred back to the U.S. They met in Germany in 1982, where both were working for the Army. When they married a year later, Boardman pursued her artistic ambitions.
For four years, she studied classical realism in Germany, and has since painted in countries across the globe, including New Zealand, Australia, Italy, France, Spain, Iran, and more.
Boardman’s works have been displayed in more than a dozen galleries, including Air Force Academy Frame and Gallery. Most recently, she showed her work in Gallery 210, a downtown art dealership. She maintains a private studio where she works and teaches.
The Obama portrait is expected to be finished by April.
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AP-WS-12-01-10 2003EST
