Sunday, October 25, 2009

Painting by Carmon



No! I did not paint this.  I am not that good.  It was painted by a former student of my husband, Lindsay Carmon, who was a Ph.D student at the University of Michigan.  My husband came home and told me about one of his students who was living in his van that was full of paintings.  "Bring him here," I told my husband.  We always had room for another person.

Carmon moved into our home and was the most unexpected gift we've ever received.  He was quiet and unassuming, refusing to live in the main house, choosing instead to live in the basement.

Everyday while we were at work, he would find something that needed repair, fix it, and quietly hand us the bill from the hardware store.  He refused to accept any money for his labor, only money for parts.  He fixed things we didn't even know were broken. He was concerned that someone could easily enter our house from the patio door so he developed an elaborate safety system for the door.

One day we came home and he had all of our sons painting the outside of the house.  We were stunned.  We had never seen our boys work so hard.

Eventually, Carmon finished school.

We came home one day to an empty house.  Carmon was gone without saying good-bye. But he left this large painting, which I had always admired, with a heartfelt thank you note.  The painting was leaning on a wall in the living room and I was so moved that tears began to fall down my face.

We kept in touch over the past thirty years and he became an art teacher in Alaska.  We were so happy when we were invited to Alaska because we thought that at last we would have a chance to see him again.  Alas, when we arrived in Alaska and called him, we discovered that he was in the lower 48 and we would not see him.

Last year we talked by telephone and I told him how much we still loved the painting but had sent it to our son in Atlanta because we didn't have a wall large enough to display it in Las Vegas, where we now live.  I missed having the painting so much that on a trip to Atlanta I took a picture of it and had a graphic shop make me a copy which we display in our home.

I asked him how his painting was going and he told me that the painting above was the last thing he ever painted.  There was no more.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A Rose is a Rose



When I'm stressed or depressed, I paint roses. So, today I painted another rose.  I do this because when I'm looking at the petals, I have to concentrate so my mind won't hold anything else.  This is how it eases my stress or makes me forget my worries.  I don't try to make a perfect rose, just the journey of painting it is all I ask, anything to keep my mind off my problems.

When I painted my first rose I swore I would never do another one, but I can't resist. I just love them.
For you, Janie, I gave it a couple of thorns.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Obama - Red, White, and Blue


This is my first color try of Obama.  I'm not satisfied with it but it should be posted.  I will get better if I keep trying.  An earlier pencil drawing in on the blog.  I'm still having problems getting facial tones so my next post will be of different ways of coloring faces.

Monday, October 12, 2009

First Butterfly


This is my first attempt at painting a butterfly.  I love butterflies for their beauty and freedom.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Singing the Blues


This was done several years ago after I saw a picture in a magazine.  I hesitated to post it because her features are strange but there is something about this that I really like.  She looks sad so I titled it "Singing the Blues."

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Strange flowers


This is my representation of a similar image I saw in 2004.  I fell in love with the picture and wanted to create my own version.