Solitaire Vanilla – portrait painting by Peter Engels 🟢

Solitaire Vanilla, A Portrait by Peter Engels

Painted in Coconut Grove, Miami, Solitaire Vanilla is a striking portrait that balances softness with strength, texture with light. Without his usual easel, Peter Engels taped the canvas directly to a wall, a spontaneous decision that brought raw, grounded energy into the work.

The painting features a beautiful Latin woman gazing sideways, with only one eye in clear focus. Her expression is subtle yet magnetic. She holds her hand gently to her cheek, drawing attention to a brilliant solitaire diamond ring, the inspiration behind the title.

The portrait was created using just four colors, expertly blended into hundreds of nuanced shades. The lightest tone is a warm vanilla, a sandy coral beige that adds a soft, cinematic atmosphere to the composition. Sunlight and shadow sculpt her face from behind, highlighting the textured surface created with Peter Engels’ signature palette knife technique.

The title Solitaire Vanilla refers both to the woman’s name, Solitaire, and the diamond ring she wears. It also alludes to the color vanilla as the emotional undertone of the painting, and to the film Vanilla Sky, with its recurring symbolism of beauty, illusion, and the fine line between what is real and what we wish were real.

As in the movie, this painting invites us to look deeper, not just at what is visible, but at what it evokes. discover beauty, illusion, and in the thin line between what is real and what we wish were real.