Who Are You?

I just finished a Christmas commission for a friend.  She asked me to do 6 canvases, all 12 inches square, each one speaking to some beautiful truth in the lives of her family members.

It raises a question:  if you were to choose one word, and maybe one image, to describe yourself....or to describe what God has done in your life, what would it be?  It's a curious thought to ponder.  I love how my answer would have been different 10 years ago from what it would be today!  God's activity in my life is SURE.  STEADY.  FAITHFUL.  KIND.  For that, I am thankful.

The Process

I thought I'd show you the process!!  It was great fun.  I started with a black canvas and just went to work.  The colors really pop against the black, don't they?  This is sort of backwards painting, because I painted all the light spots, and left the black canvas to show through on the dark spots.  My friend Lois taught me how to do it.  Thanks Lo!

Here's the finished product:

This is a commissioned piece, which means it leaves my house on Tuesday.  I may have to paint another one just to keep!

(the previous post was practice for this one.  You notice I HAD to get more blue sky in it.  After all, that's one of the things I love about  Colorado.  The skies are almost NEVER gray!)

What Have I Been Working On?

This is the initial sketch for a  painting I've been asked to do.  Imagine a brilliant blue sky, empty black aspen branches, and brilliant yellow leaves with a touch of red.  Today's the day I get to go buy the canvas, and then I get to start painting on Monday!

These two are rough sketches for a different client.  He wants images for his church that depict our reaching out to the world, our worship of God, and our service to others.  I'm still doing a lot of prep work on this project, which is why you don't see an image yet for our service to others!

Pikes Peak!

This was commissioned by a friend a really long time ago.  It took awhile to find the right reference picture...which is funny, considering I look at this mountain every single day!  Once we agreed on the pic, I fell off the ladder!  So this job was delayed repeatedly.

But now it's done!  We took it to the framer yesterday, and within the week it should be ready to hang on the wall.  To quote my sister-in-law, closure is good!