I painted this from an old black and white photo of Tim and his family. I was able to adjust it so that the finished piece was of "Timmy and Dad." I love the body language of Timmy as he mimics his fathers image. As I watch my seven grandsons copy their own daddy's language, ideas and habits I realize how blessed these little boys are to have such wonderful fathers to mimic.

This commissioned piece was done for my friend Karen Shill. As I do my work sometimes I have the blessing of getting to know my clients/friends in a different light. I have always admired Karen, but as I studied the family that she is surrounded by, I grew to admire her more. She is truly a blessed woman!

Childhood Joy

Can you guess which one is Steve? He is the boy at the far left and I think it looks just like him. I can see him making that face when he worked for Carol and I as a painter. You could always tell he was taking in all that we said with a curious little grin, and that he would make whatever we asked him to do better than we could have imagined. What a privilege it was to work with such a great artist.

Steve and Mary

Sometimes as an Artist I am my biggest critic. Mary Thomas came over yesterday to pick up her painting that I did of Steve. When I opened a drawer with throw away card board to wrap her painting in, she saw one of my throw away paintings. Not everything I paint is framed and so I had forgotten that I did this painting shortly after Steve passed away. I didn't think it was wall worthy but when Mary saw it she loved it. I know she is really missing Steve and seeing this painting of the two of them made her happy.

So instead of throwing it away, I had the pleasure of giving it to her.

Best Friends

I really had a fun time doing this painting of Kellie and Ryan. I was going to give it to them for Christmas but then I had second thoughts so I didn't. It was fun and I liked the way it turned out so free and expressive. But for some reason I didn't think they would. Before I put it away after Christmas I let Kellie look at it and she loved it and called Ryan in to take a look. He loved it too so I framed it and gave it to them after Christmas. I forgot to take a photo as I often do when doing family paintings, so I had to take the picture through glass. I used charcoal and did this painting really fast and with music playing. I have found that music allows me to be more expressive as an artist. I spent December doing commissioned portraits and I needed to do something free and expressive.

Kellie and Ryan are such a loving couple and really are best friends. I hope you can tell that by this painting. That is what I tried to achieve.

I haven't photographed some of my recent paintings--they are coming:)

It is all about the Dog

This is a painting I did of my good friend Chris's family. I believe this painting has the most portraits in it. Again this was a gift for the husband. I hope he liked it and was surprised!

This painting was a challenge, but it was fun. I painted this for a client this Christmas. The subject was my clients father in law who had passed away a couple of years ago. She wanted a painting of him in front of his truck because he used his truck to go out and serve the less fortunate. The problem was that she didn't have a photo of him in front of the truck. So she had a friend pose with the truck and took a photo of him for me to paint from. I had to flip the photo, and take the head of her father in law from another photo (confusing you yet)?

Anyway when I got the drawing done, the painting was really fun. I felt the joy from this man's spirit as I painted. The painting was a gift for her husband, (I hope he liked it)!

Here is another photo that I took this evening. It is of a painting that I did about two years ago of my grandson, Douglas.

Once in a while I go into someones home and see that I have failed to record a painting. This is a painting that I did a few years ago. I took the photo of the painting at my sons home this evening when I was there visiting my newest family member. Kami and Tyler (pictured) had a beautiful baby boy three days ago. Joshua King Milliron is born!