Happy Mother's Day

LB and E   oil/canvas   24 x 18 x 1.5

LB is my daughter-in-law.  E is our new grandson.  As I see my own history being repeated, I am awed by the intensity of mother love.  I have learned so much from this beautiful young woman...she is confident, yet soft spoken.  Hard working yet always seems to have time.  States considerate opinions without bulldozing.  E is a lucky boy.  I am a lucky woman.

This painting was done from photos taken when E was just days old.  It practically painted itself.  My commitment to the work could only be outdone by my love.

Paint what you love.

Paint about what you know...

Narrow Bridge   oil/canvas   36 x 24 x 1.5

It is said that writing can best be done when you write about what you know.....the knowing.  I would like to further that notion by stating that, for me, I paint best when I paint what I know.  It is difficult to prop myself up with my easel in unfamiliar surrounds and try to tell a visual story....the story that combines the surround with the feelings that it conjures up inside me.  My feelings are inseparable from the view.  Likewise, when painting from an unfamiliar model, my results are correlate to my feelings about that model.  If he/she is someone with whom I have many positive shared experiences, the end product shows emotion and commitment.  Even a new model will yield positive results is I feel an emotional accessibility.  I have some pretty bad paintings of models who where whiny, stiff, or unable to relate some of their emotional selves.  This correlation presented itself after many years of painting.  And so, for me, for commitment, I chose subjects with which I have an emotional bond....landscapes, people or objects.  Those are the stuff of which I am willing to go the extra mile. "Narrow Bridge" is a scene that I pass several times a week....just down the street from me.  The scene may go unnoticed my many.  For me, it is home.  Pure bliss.