Derek Beach

 Derek Beach was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkins Lymphoma in October 2008.  Two weeks later he married the love of his life, Kaela.  In July 2009, they welcomed their son Camden into their lives.  Derek received his first bone marrow transplant just a few weeks later.  Derek continued to battle cancer enduring radiation, chemotherapy, and another transplant, all with an incredible attitude.  Derek always tried to have a smile on his face.  Our Heavenly Father called Derek home about two weeks ago.  Kaela has been my daughter in law Anamin's best friend for many years.
It was my pleasure to help Anamin give this
gift to her sweet friend Kaela.
May Kaela and Camden be blessed
as they remember Derek's wonderful
qualities.  

This commissioned painting was done for Alison Olson.  I took it from an old black and white photo.  Alison lost her father when she was a little girl and wanted a painting to remind her of him.  The picture is of her sister, her father and Alison.  The title of the painting came to me as I studied their faces and realized that it was Christmas time when the snapshot was taken.  I tried to convey a snapshot of the relationship she had with her father in the painting. 

Comfort and Joy

Shane and Anamin

I wanted to get a painting done of Shane and Anamin before they left for school in the fall.  I am so proud of these kids.  They moved into my parents home a month before my mother passed away because they knew she need extra help.  None of us expected Mom to go so soon.  These kids have wonderful memories of having dinner with my parents almost every night and of praying with them everyday as a family.  When my mother took a turn for the worse, Shane was the one who called me.  "Something happened with Grandma last night.  She was disoriented and Grandpa and I got her into bed but she has not responded today."  My heart sunk because I knew what this meant.  I was going to loose my mother.  Mom died the next day.  I am so thankful that Shane and Anamin were there and are still there helping my father deal with the loss.  It is such a blessing that Shane has been accepted to PA school in Loma Linda, but we will all miss them.  I think my father will miss them the most!   

Hold Your Head Up High Sister

This Christmas 2013 I wanted to do a painting of each of my grandchildren.  I hadn't painted my little grand daughter yet so this one is really for her.  She is so in love with her big brother, so I included him.  Each day when Karson gets home from school he is greeted by his little sister's high pitched squeal, "Hi Karson!"  Shea greets everybody like they are her long lost friends.  She has taught me the importance of making others feel welcome by the way you greet them.    

Josh

This year I was able to paint some pictures for my children's Christmas.  This painting is of Josh, Kami and Tyler's second son.  Josh wants to communicate and is really trying and is having some success.  However even without speaking his eyes say so much!

The last conversation I had with my mother about old photographs, was of this one.  This is a photograph of my Grandfather and his dad and little sister Molly.  It is the only picture of Molly that I know of.  As you can see, someone wrote her name on the picture so that she would not be forgotten.
She was hit by a car when she was just a little older than she is in this photograph.

 My grandfather was holding his little sister's hand because it was a snowy day in Chicago.  Molly was wearing glasses by this time because her vision was bad.  The snow was coming down hard and Molly's glasses were covered with snow.  While Grandpa and Molly were waiting for the traffic to clear, so that they could cross the street, Molly stepped off the curb.  She was struck by a car and it pulled her hand free of her big brother's grip.  Molly broke her leg and died soon after from the complications of a blood clot.

I asked my grandfather about his sister once when he was in his nineties.  He became emotional as he told me about this experience nearly eighty years prior.  I think loosing his little sister in such a tragic way left a shadow over the rest of my grandfather's life.

As I painted this picture I thought about how excited my mother must have been to have Grandpa Fred introduce his little sister to Mom in the spirit world.  I can just hear my mother telling Molly how happy she is to finally meet her!  I am sure that my mother's love and devotion to my grandparents in this life is having a profound influence on the rest of the Augustin family on the other side of the veil.  There is no doubt that my mother has shared her testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the Augustin side of the family.  I can hear her excitedly telling them about her wonderful husband and children and grandchildren!  

Painting pictures of my ancestors and others who have passed away always makes me feel that the veil is very thin for me during that process.  What a wonderful blessing painting has been to me over the years. 

It would have been my parents 59th anniversary this week.  I know my mother and if she were alive she would say, "I would really like to have that painting of Molly."  So this one is for you Mom, (but I am giving it to Dad for safe keeping).  Happy anniversary Dad!  Thank you Mom and Dad for giving us a family rich with history and love.        

At Work and almost finished!

Molly, Great Grandfather Augustin and My Grandpa Fred

Molly

I lost my mother just over a year ago.  To my surprise my desire to paint just stopped.  I tried shortly after she passed away to paint a portrait of her but my hands would not let me.  So I am trying again. That meant that I had to open my blog (which I hadn't done in a year) and get started.  Wow things have changed with editing and so forth.  Above is a painting I did of my mother a while back playing the guitar.  My mother was an amazing woman.  She never stopped learning or living life!  The video is a little thing I put together for my family on the anniversary of her death.  We all loved her so much!  My mother was my biggest fan:)  The last thing she would want is for me to stop painting.  So with renewed strength I am going to start a new painting today.  Wish me luck!  The next one's for you Mom:)

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!

In Daddy's Arms

This is a painting that I did for my good friend Mary. Her son in law (pictured) died in an accident a few months ago, leaving behind three young children and his wife. Mary is one of the most admirable women that I know. She deals with her trials in such a dignified manner. I am blessed to belong to a book club with Mary. She has some health problems and while most of us car pool to book club, Mary has been driven to and fro by her beloved husband Steve. I am sure that the reason for this is that he wanted to make sure his wife arrived safely and got into bed early. Steve now is battling a brain tumor. Now just as he made sure that his wife was taken care of for many years, she is at his side making sure that he is taken care of. Mary and Steve are what I would call kindred spirits. When the club heard that Mary's daughter had lost her husband they all wanted to do something personal for her family. The ladies of the club, commissioned me to do this painting for Mary's family, because we all truly love and admire her. We pray for your family Mary and hope that this painting will bring you some measure of comfort. We love you.

Feed My Sheep

I have had the reference photo I used for this painting for many years just sitting in a drawer. I received it when I was doing a commissioned piece for the Toone family. This was not the photo I used at that time but I asked them if I could make a copy to use for myself at a later date. Of course they said I could but it was not until Mike (pictured) Toone was sustained as our new Stake President that I felt inspired to paint it. The feeling as he stood in that conference was palpable. The spirit was so strong as we listened to our dear friend Mike bare his testimony. On a more personal note, he was my bishop as I went through the trial of divorce. I will always be grateful that I had a bishop at that time in my life who had such great compassion. There were times when I felt like a lost sheep as I entered into the singles world in the church. Mike made sure that I continued to have great opportunities to serve in our ward and made sure that I felt loved. President Toone takes his responsibility to "Feed My Sheep" to heart and for that our stake will be blessed.