Gift Paintings for Christmas

I just realized I never posted the paintings I did for my family and for friends for Christmas. I was not 100% wild about some of them, but I really liked some of them.The first one was for our oldest son Mike and his wife Sonya. It is called, simply, "Calvary". It is 18x24 inches.

The next I did as a donation for a women's shelter for single pregnant moms, called "Mary's Shelter". They had a silent auction fundraiser. This painting is also 18x24. It's called "Holy Family".

There were things about this one that I liked better and things that I didn't like as much as the original version, shown below:

and to complicate matters further, I did a third version for a friend. This one also had things I liked, and things I didn't, so the stage is set to try again, hopefully to get a painting that I feel does justice to the subject!  My friend went back and forth several times but ended up saying she liked the above one more so this one below is the one that's in my store now.

 I painted elephants for my elephant-loving granddaughter. I was pretty happy with them, but the photo is blurry. I took it in a hurry before packing them up to send off to California in order to get them there in time for Christmas.

I painted turtles for my other granddaughter but was not nearly as happy with them.

 

and finally, the one I did for our youngest son was kind of bizarre and not something I would normally have chosen to do, except he asked for something "chaotic". This was what I came up with. 

New Paintings for March

After taking a month off, I have gotten four new pieces of art completed.

This first one is 16x20, and I have been working on it off and on since January.It was painted from photos I took of Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) in Big Sur in 2008. It is called, "Pacific Coast Highway".  I have it hung in the "Angels' Little Kisses" store and it is selling for  $125.00. I have created a store on Facebook where I am offering my paintings with free shipping. I am not including frames, as that adds significantly to the cost of shipping. 

The second painting resulted when I used leftover paint to do the background on a new canvas. I liked the blending of the oranges and yellows so much I just started painting as though it were light on the trees at sunrise. It is called "Catskill Creek" because it really reminds me of the Catskills that we lived near for 20 some years. It was a joy to paint, and is 11x14. It's priced at $80.00.

The third one I worked on also since January, and although it was a labor of love, it was very difficult for me for some reason. I wanted this one to be somber as opposed to the glory of the resurrection atmosphere I wanted for the one I did in December, although the subject is really the same. This one is called "Good Friday" and it is 24x36. I am not offering this one on my facebook site because it is too big to ship without oversize charges. I price it in the store at $225.00.

The final one started when I taught a short workshop on the method I use to paint the background for my paintings.  I really was having fun- and after the workshop, one of the participants was looking through  items that were in the "Freebie" box. She found some lace circles and some fabric sort of like pellon in pink. I put it on my still wet canvas and painted over it- it was so much fun!  I had brought a small still life of a couple of pots of artificial flowers so that's what I painted the image of. This work is 16x20 and I have it in the store for $100.00.

So there is what I've been up to the last couple of months. Having fun lol. I start again on the works for May (I'm going to be gone to the Holy Land for much of the rest of this month.)