She Paints

Today's post is about my Mom. It was her birthday last week, so she's been on my mind a lot lately. My Mom has many gifts...besides raising great kids. :-) One of her greatest gifts is that she paints. Not just kind of, sort of paints...she Paints!! I'll share a few. She does oil paintings of scenery around the farm. She does oil paintings that are reproductions of paintings by famous artists. The one below is a copy of a painting called "Picking Wild Flowers" by William Affleck. I couldn't find a good copy online to show you the original...but it is a very true likeness.

The following is a painting by William Bouguereau called "Childhood Idyll".

My Mom reproduced it for me. It hangs over my fireplace.

She is especially good at doing portraits. This is a photo of Brian when he was two years old.

This is the portrait that she did from the photo.

And Billy at two...can you believe the curls!

And the portrait of Billy that she did from a similar shot.

She also does paintings that are created from ideas that come into her head. This one is called "Together with Friends". It was accepted as an entry in the State Fair. No ribbons, but it was an honor just to have been accepted.

She also does paintings that are a compilation of things. She used the markings of this horse....

...and the general lay of this land....

...and elements of this painting by Robert Duncan titled "Running Home"...

...and created this painting that hangs in my kitchen. Cherished art.

I like to surround myself with things that have real meaning to me...this is one of them.

I had mentioned that my Mom was on my mind because of her birthday....actually, she's been on my mind almost all of the time since my Dad passed away a few months ago. When he died it really felt as though we lost a part of Mom too. In a way we did. She wasn't the same without him. After spending over 50 years with someone, how could you be the same when they are gone? But my Mom is strong, stronger than we would have guessed. Day by day she's getting a little bit better. And now that the holidays have passed, she's taken out her easel.

And little by little it feels like things will be OK again...simply because she paints.