Sleeping Girls

About Sleeping Girls

This realistic painting, a portrait of children, is by a Canadian artist.

Daniel Hughes is internationally recognized as a fine artist known best perhaps for his true-to-life figurative paintings. Early in his life, Hughes was strongly influenced by the work of his artist mother and her friends, many of whom were renowned British artists.
He grew up drawing…never in color books but on six-foot lengths of computer paper. Hughes was especially drawn to the figurative paintings of British artists of the 1950s. His aesthetic focuses on a realistic interpretation, composition, light, harmony, and emotion. Hughes' work, like this acrylic and charcoal painting of two little girls sleeping peacefully side by side in bed, is typical of his preference for a muted, warmer color palette. Quietly charged with emotion this portrait is both remarkably real and endearing.

“Learning how to paint the figure is all about problem-solving. How do I make that look real? How do I turn that? How do I make that light look proper? How do I understand anatomy? It’s not something you’re born with at all.” Dan Hughes

Daniel Hughes completed his MFA at the New York Academy of Art in 1995. Hughes studied in Florence, Italy through the Ontario College of Art. During this period he moved towards "observational realism." According to critic Donald Kuspit, observational realism depicts the world exactly as it appears to be.
He received the Elizabeth Greenshields Award for Figurative Art in 1991 and 1995. He has had solo shows throughout Canada, England, and the US, and was part of a prestigious group show at The National Portrait Gallery in London (2005).