Customized “Las Dos Fridas” portrait

Frida Kahlo is one of my favorite painters by all time. I love Frida’s art style and I like using it in my own work. As the expression goes ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”!  Over the years, I’ve created a number of paintings inspired  by her work.  There was a ‘Kahloween Frida’ , a ‘dark’ version of one of her self-portraits I painted for Halloween. Another one was Frida Kahlo painted as Rosie the Riveter. Of course, there was also my version of Frida’s family tree.

One of the latest additions to my ever-growing Frida-related art collection is a custom couple portrait inspired by Kahlo’s famous painting “Las Dos Fridas”. I was commissioned to create it as a unique wedding gift for a couple who are big Frida Kahlo fans. When I was contacted by their friend about the project I didn’t think twice whether to take it on or not! I got so excited about re-interpreting “the two Fridas” I couldn’t wait to get started!

Granted the project wasn’t without certain creative challenges. It wouldn’t be difficult for me to keep the rest of the painting as is and just switch Frida’s faces for to the intended couple’s faces. However, the couple getting married were both males. Which meant I had to figure out how to dress them while keeping Frida’s artistic style intact.  Obviously, I wanted their outfits to somehow resemble Kahlo’s dresses in the original painting.

Custom couple portrait inspired by Frida Kahlo’s “Las Dos Fridas” painting

Frida Kahlo’s dresses turned into suits

The couple in the painting had to be depicted wearing suits.  Per my client’s wishes. Somehow, I had to turn Frida Kahlo’s large skirts into pants. In order to accomplish that I had to do a little research. As I’ve stated previously I wanted for this couple portrait to look like Frida’s own work. Therefore I had to figure out how Frida would’ve painted a man’s suit. So I did an image search of Frida’s paintings. I found the one I could use as an example. It’s called “Self-portrait with cropped hair” . As far as I know it’s Kahlo’s only self-portrait where the artist is dressed in a man’s clothing. Seeing how Frida herself painted a suit gave me a good idea as to how I should paint it in my artwork.

I ended up dressing the groom on the left in a white suit. To make his outfit look similar to Frida’s dress I painted him in a vest with the same pattern as the bottom of Frida Kahlo’s skirt. I put the groom on the right in a blue suit with a purple vest and an orange tie to match the colors of Frida’s top in the painting.

The couple’s poses stayed the same as in the original artwork. Furthermore, I even kept the somewhat awkward hands from the original “Las Dos Fridas” painting.

“Las Dos Fridas” miniturized

In real life the size of “Las Dos Fridas” painting is 68.3″× 68″.  However, my interpretation of the portrait was significantly smaller.  It was only 11″X14″.  Naturally, a much smaller size possessed some additional challenges. The biggest one was keeping Frida Kahlo’s art style intact on a much smaller scale. Not to mention keeping certain visual elements from the original artwork. The weave on the wicker bench was a bit of a headache! Recreating the hearts wasn’t that simple either.

All the creative challenges aside, I’d like to believe I’ve succeeded in my quest to create a great wedding gift that celebrates Frida Kahlo’s art. My client must’ve agreed with me. He wrote me a great review on Etsy: “This was by far the greatest purchase I made this year. She was such a great artist to work with. I went in with pretty high hopes, and she far exceeded. SO great and would recommend a million times over.”

Apparently his friends (the couple he’s commissioned this unique wedding gift for) were happy as well!  Of course, I’d be happy too if someone put so much effort into getting such a thoughtful wedding gift for me.

The original “Las Dos Fridas” painting by Frida Kahlo

To say I enjoyed working on the “Las Dos Fridas” project would be a huge understatement!  I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to work on something Frida Kahlo related again.  So if you have any creative ideas involving Frida’s art please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to working with you!

Natasha

P.S. Viva la Frida!