Quiet Gaze

On one of our trips to Leavenworth with friends, while others were playing some table games on 20 January 2008 , I pulled out the paints and decided to make my first attempt at painting a human face. While I had done some people in my pictures, never with any detail of face.  Using a picture taken by Hannah of her young sister Asnat, who are the daughters of friends of mine from Israel, I sought to bring the focus on her brown eyes, making her also a bit older than she actually is.  Alas, when my nephew saw the finished painting, he exclaimed, " Wow, she is really beautiful and sexy!"  Apparently not only did I paint a picture that someone could actually recognize as a person, but someone thought my creation was sexy!  Honestly, not really what I had in mind, but hey, I am just new at painting....

As Generations Look On

In May 2009, I received word that our dear friend from London passed away rather unexpectedly.  I had become good friends with Bob and Edna over the years as we had visited back and forth.  Since early on after meeting them, Edna had said for years, "I have my hat ready for your wedding!," and would ask  me each time we met, "Do I need to get my hat ready?"  One day I let her know that she could indeed get her hat ready, and in fact,they did come to our wedding, Edna wearing a hat!  Both Bob and Edna meant a lot to me, so upon hearing of Bob's loss, I flew to London for the funeral.  After the funeral, there was a lovely reception at a retreat center.  Their grandson, Cooper (alias for Edna's real name for him of Super Duper Cooper) was out chasing ducks in the garden whilst everyone else was talking in the reception hall. I stepped out to see the gardens and Cooper asked me if I wanted to go look at the pond with the ducks.  As he stood on a bridge to a little island in the gardens, I snatched a few photos with my low-pixel phone camera.  I decided that day that I would paint a photo picture for Bob.  I created an image within Photoshop, then had it transferred to canvas, and then painted and highlighted the canvas.  I titled the work As Generations Look On because my hope is that Cooper will look back and see how very much his grandparents loved each other and were commited to each other as they moved about "the pond" of life, and that when troubles come, that he will see the incredible value and strength that good relationships bridge, even over dark, troubled waters. ...of course the ultimate relationship of strength being with God.

(Currently Untitled)

Started this one on the 12th of February 2010 while in Leavenworth celebrating my birthday, the first painting I have worked on since mom died in September.  It will be of a kid drinking water from a sprinkler.  Still in process, of course at this point. I have chosen these colour tones because Cori thinks "Quiet Gaze" is too big for the main guest bathroom, which I hung in place of "Starbuck's Maple Leaf" after we finished the bathroom remodel.