A Painted Background

I finished a commission last night.  Paintings aren’t something I have been working on lately and it was fun to play with paint for a while.  Maybe I could make a painted background piece and then layer portraits on top of it?  Not a bad idea.  This is what I worked on tonight including the commission….

Cameras And A Saint Bracelet

Tonight I have been working on a bracelet for a friend of some of his favorite saints.  I like how it turned out and tried photographing it with different cameras in order to understand the differences.  I used my Nikon D80 digital SLR with a 60 mm lens and a Canon G11 pocket camera.  I realize this will only be of interest to me…ha!

The Canon G11

The Nikon digital SLR

Sympathy Paintings?

I was invited to do a commisioned piece for a friend to give as a gift to her friend who’s mother recently passed away.  I felt a little strange at first approaching this task.  I actually avoided it for several weeks!  But when I sat down to create the piece it nearly fell right out of me.  I suppose the idea of ‘sympathy art’ (more meaningful than a Hallmak card by a long shot!) seems morbid but by the end of the exercise I felt like I had done far more than offer sympathy.  I offered a memorial, whatever feelings it evoked, in the heart of the intended owner.  That is the gift…..the gift or art.