#47 - Jacklyn

8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Board
NFS

I drew my Aunt's name in our family Christmas gift exchange. I painted her youngest child Jacklyn. She has 4 more kids and says that I'd better draw her name for the next 4 years.

#46 - Brenden and Amy

"Brenden and Amy"

12" x 9"

Oil on Masonite

SOLD

Say hi to my son's best friend and his mom! This piece was commissioned by Amy's sister and I love how it came out. It's a completely two-color piece. Titanium white and and Williamsburg Italian Black Roman Earth, which is the warmest black oil paint we could find. Really thick paint. Heavily pigmented. I had to use a lot of medium with it but you can feel the handmade quality to this paint.

This was my first two-color portrait and I'll definitely be doing a lot more. Let me know what you think!

#45 - Red

"Red"

8" x 10"

Oil on Masonite

Red is a beloved pet of one of my co-workers. His color was definitely the challenge on this one! And when I delivered this one, the co-workers husband (who is the recipient) answered the door. Slightly awkward, but I passed the box off as if it were a gift for his wife so he didn't peek. I'm sure he was highly impressed with my "wrapping". It was obviously a previously used box that I had placed the painting in just in case I had to leave it outside.

#44 - Smitty's GC 4

8" x 10"

Oil on Masonite

SOLD

And last but not least...The children are finished and delivered. Fingers crossed for happy parents!

#43 - Smitty's GC #3

8" x 10"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

Isn't she a cutie? The biggest challenge on this one honestly was the flyaway hair. In the photo, it just glowed from the sunlight. The photographer truly has a gift and I was not able to duplicate it exactly, so after a few attempts, I didn't try. I stepped away, came back to my style and think I came up with a successful solution.

I'm not a photorealist and I really don't want to be. I certainly admire photorealistic artists (Here's one of my favorites.), I've just never had the urge to paint like that. Love to look at it though!

#42 - Smitty's GC #2

8" x 10"
Oil on Canvas
SOLD

Here's the 2nd boy. Again, I had a ton of fun painting these kids. Their grandfather is a co-worker of mine and you could tell just how much he loves them all when he speaks of them. They are a beautiful family.

#41 - Smitty's GC 1

8" x 10"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

Ok, here we go! I can now post all of the Christmas portraits! Yay! I have 7 that I will be posting in the next bit. The first 4 are some of the cutest kids I have ever seen and it was a pleasure to paint them. I have to say, I had great photos to work with. As soon as I have the name of the photographer I will post it! (at first, I thought the grandparents took the pics, but they said a friend did so I want to make sure she gets all the credit she is due. These were fantastic shots!) These paintings were a gift to the kiddos parents and I truly hope they love them.

Where Have I Been?

I'm still here, don't worry! I'm just pushing through all of my Christmas orders. They are all presents, so I can't really post them until Dec 26th. Paintings 41-47 will be posted all in a bunch!

I think it's time to admit that the painting total is going to be 50, not 100. I am fine with that! That is 50 paintings in a year. 50 more than I did last year. In fact, 50 more than I completed in the last 10 years. But we'll talk more about that on Dec. 31. Who knows, maybe there will be a Christmas miracle that will produce 50 paintings.