Paintings for Presents and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, my friends! Is it too late to say that? Well, I’m pretty late on a lot of things – like this post – so just consider the source. I wanted to share with you some of the paintings I’ve done recently.

I hope you had wonderful holidays filled with peace and joy. Mine were great, actually. I feel wonderful that I can say that truthfully. This Christmas was really, really nice for me.

One of the reasons I enjoyed it more was because I had actual presents for people. Homemade, if you will, but still . . . presents. First is Penny’s. If you’ve seen photos of Greece, you’ve probably seen this church and the sea behind it. It’s actually in Santorini, a small island outside of Greece. I knew I wanted to do a painting of Santorini for her present but I didn’t want wall art. Penny’s house is like an art gallery with every wall home to a spectacular piece.

Instead, I decided do the painting as a pillow for the guest room, a space that she walks past as she heads towards her bedroom. The room has soft colors of peach, pink and aqua which guided me into a sunset scene rather than the typical blue ocean we usually see for Greece.

Did I mention Penny is Greek? Ha ha ha. Yes, she is! Forgot to mention that little tidbit. She speaks Greek, she cooks Greek, and she loves life like a Greek.

To do the painting, I used a canvas dropcloth, stretched it onto a board and taped it. I totally forgot to prime it, unfortunately. That would’ve saved me some time and time was of the essence. Penny was visiting her sister for 4 days and I took that time to attempt a seascape that I haven’t painted in maybe 16 years!

Side note: Can you tell I’m feeling better? I’d never have attempted this a few months ago!

I managed to get everything done save for the flowers. She knew I was painting her present so she steered clear of the studio one afternoon while I dabbed shades of pink onto the canvas.

Here is the painting in the guest room. It picks up a lot of the colors in the room but is still the showstopper, which I wanted.

I thought about trying a watercolor but I don’t think I could do it on the broadcloth canvas.

Anyway, she loves it and so do I.

Next was the painting for Penny’s son, Lance, and his girlfriend, Jess. I’ve known Lance since the day Penny brought him home from the hospital. He’s an incredible musician as well as a producer and Jess is a fantastic drummer. They gave me a gift card to an art store the Christmas before last and I had nothing for them.

This year would be different.

I knew what I wanted to paint, it was a bit more challenging how to lay it out since I’m not a graphic designer. It turned out pretty well, I think. It’s a watercolor painting with inking.

So somehow I managed to get TWO paintings for presents done before Christmas when I started them both only a couple weeks prior.

I seem to work best on deadlines.

Lastly was the painting of a Rainbow Trout for Penny’s friend, Craig. Craig has been unbelievably kind to me as he was the one who buried my Boston Terrier in his yard a few months ago.

He loves to fish and sometimes fishes at Echo Lake, where I was raised in the summers. My father planted Rainbow Trout for many, many years and Echo was always flush with them.

It was such a thrill do paintings for presents. It got me out of my slump, into the studio and actually producing!

Now, I need some more deadlines to get busy again, ha!