MIDLAND - Grace Kettell has an eye for the blond-haired boys with cute dimples - at least when it comes to her artwork.

In her first family-related portrait of her brother, Quincy, she captured his facial features and precious smile as realistically as the photograph she worked from.

While she’s loved drawing since she was a child, Kettell, 15, is an up-and-coming artist with a passion for portraits and a dedication to perfection.

As a home-schooler, she has the time to focus on art and takes classes with Patty McMahon Rice at McMahon Studio in Warrenton.

Rice says Kettell’s only weakness is lacking confidence.
“I’m doing the best I can to encourage her in terms of her future,” Rice said. “But typical of most artists, she is probably more critical of her work than anyone else and doubts herself. And these are certainly demons that I’ve battled, and I try to encourage my students not to listen to the negative voice inside. I try and help them be aware of that aspect of being an artist.”

Rice said since Kettell is a quick study and strives to perfect her talent, she has the capability to achieve much success.

“I think she obviously loves children and loves family and you see that in her portraits,” Rice said. “She has a good sense of light and dark and form and a real nice approach to the paper - a lot of good control in that way to produce a wide range of value and very soft transitions between light and dark. Her technique communicates that kind of love, happiness. Somebody else who might be more intense and more dramatic might have sharper lines and a little bit more tension to the drawings, but her drawings have this peaceful way about them. She does a good job in terms of how she approaches a portrait and what she wants to communicate.”

Kettell said her serious interest in art began when she was 9 and a cousin gave her a sketchpad and told her never to stop drawing.

In 2003, she began taking advanced art classes and now she’s accepting commissions of $125 per portrait of people and pets. She also customizes cards and stationery.

“When I get into it, it’s like my creation, even though it’s coming from a photograph,” she said. “It’s like a part of me and I just want to make it as great as possible. When I get into it, there is something, I can’t really explain it, it’s a good feeling that I really enjoy because I feel like it’s mine.”

While Kettell works primarily from photographs she said Rice teaches her not to be a slave to the photo and Kettell will often change elements in the portrait or remove imperfections.

When she’s not working meticulously on an art project for Rice or school, she doodles for fun.

Kettell said she enjoys drawing caricatures and focusing on faces, especially eyes, which she says can make any portrait pop.

However, she also enjoys drawing ladies in ball gowns and on one Christmas occasion, she and her mother decided to sew one of her designs for a church dance.
Fashion design, though, is just a girlish dream, she said. For now, she would like to focus on portraits and pursue art as a career.

Kettell began her Web site in February with the help of her mom and started taking commissions in March.

From Rice’s instruction, she said she’s learned to focus on feature placement and taking the time to measure or map out her portrait to make it as realistic as possible.
“I’m a perfectionist,” she said. “I start out relaxed but sometimes I get frustrated but I don’t ever give up on it even though sometimes I feel like it. I always finish it.”
Kettell said she is now working on mastering portraits in pastel, rather than graphite.
“I’m still a student and I’m getting used to the unfamiliarity of pastels, which is difficult,” she said. “I really want to work on pastels because I really want to work on people in color.”

While Kettell enjoys drawing portraits, which she recognizes she has the talent for, the modest girl from Midland said she also knows she has a lot of growing to do as an artist.
However, if left up to the critics, Kettell has already achieved some serious stature in the art world. One of her fans described her work as, “Super, duper, really, really, uber good.”

Liz Mitchell can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or emitchell@starexponent.com.