little Mary

I just made my third cup of coffee for the day and sat down with a piece of my favorite holiday treat- pumpkin pie with whip cream. I have been emailing some of my artist friends to get together soon and looking up new artists. I am feeling inspired by the new year quickly approaching and making a list of goals, not resolutions necessarily just new thoughts for a new year. I am with Loyds family at his moms house and he sang us some of his new songs last night and I felt so inspired to be a better artist and encourage him to keep growing as an artist as well.

Today I curled up with Two from Galilee, my favorite book to read at Christmas time each year. It is a love story of Mary and Joseph. As I read each word slowly I feel more and more anxious to go and paint a bunch of paintings inspired by the images in Marjorie Holmes’ words.

It reminds me of the sweetest song I have ever heard about my passion for studying Women of the Bible- Labor of Love written by Andrew Peterson and sung by Jill Phillips.
here are parts of the lyrics:

"You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town..

...And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold...

...But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love..."

The song starts out with a powerful phrase "it was not a silent night"
It is so beautiful, and she says "little Mary" in the song and I noticed Marjorie Holmes says the phrase little Mary multiple times in Two From Galilee... So I wanted to post this picture of my latest painting of Mary and Jesus. It was commissioned by my old Church in Texarkana Texas in November.

little mary....
the phrase that has inspired me to dig deeper into the passion of the stories of these women whose lives I love to try to express...

17 Christmas Commissions

my freezing cold sunroom studio transformed into SANTA'S ART WORKSHOP!

I have been BUSY working on Christmas commissions for the past month, but being busy as an artist is encouraging and fun! I enjoy commissions even though at times I wish I could be painting whatever I wanted that day, it is fun to make something that is personal for the buyer. I am a big supporter of having original artwork in your home, and its fun to help people do this. I wanted to post some pictures of all of these new works even though they are not color corrected, cropped, and watermarked ready to put up on my website. So, excuse the peg board and wrinkled black fabric backgrounds...

one of my cousins ordered 7 little paintings for all of her nieces and nephews for Christmas. Each on is 12" X 16" . I was extremely excited about what we came up with for the girls. She originally wanted Mirrors for each one but that could get pricey, so we thought up doing small collage paintings in the style of the mirrors I make- with doylies, a quote, sequins, and swirls. So each little cutie got a painting of all of the women they know from their family all the way to their maternal and paternal great grandmothers.. a unique gift that they can treasure forever.

neice 1

niece 2

niece 3

niece 4

she ordered quote collage paintings for her nephews with sports quotes and a couple of Bible versesnephew 1

nephew 2

nephew 3

"Drifting" (an abstract commission)
24" X 36"

24 X 36 PAINTINGS ONLY $200 IF YOU ORDER IN DECEMBER! THATS $50 OFF! ONLY A FEW MORE DAYS FOR THIS CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!

Wedding Painting

24" X 36"

this is my new favorite wedding commission painting that I finished a couple weeks ago. The husband emailed me and ordered this as a surprise gift to his wife! They are a really sweet couple- they have commissioned 4 paintings from me. In April, she commissioned the piece Love Is All You Need that is orange and yellow, and then in October ordered two small pieces simliar to this in style for the two of them to give as the traditional gift to the parents at the Rehearsal Dinner and they also said "love is all you need" I truly appreciate their support of original artwork for their home. I painted it quick because of the Christmas deadline and did not want to part with it because it was my new favorite! So here are some detail pictures:

Wedding Painting

22" X 18"

my best friend since we were 3 got married in November, so I made this wedding painting for her as a gift and mailed it to her- I think she saw it coming since this is my usual wedding gift for close friends, but she hadn't mentioned it so I hope it was a surprise when I had it shipped to her house!

Family Painting
16" X 20"

a sweet friend of mine ordered the painting above and below for her two brothers as gifts for Christmas. I forgot to photograph them after I added a quote to one from their vows, and a verse from the Bible to the other.

Wedding Painting
16" X 20"

"Falling Into Place" abstract commission
18" X 10"

"Surrender"
30" X 30"

two people commissioned me to remake the painting I did live at the Stirring. What was cool about both of these orders, is that they saw the meaning of the painting as I wrote about it on my blog, and they both wanted the painting to mark a season of Surrender in their own lives, as a kind-of reminder to allow God control of your life. One of them said a friend of theirs advised when they wanted to mark something they learned in their relationship with God that they should purchase something to have in their home to be a constant reminder.

"Surrender"
36" X 48"

neither of these commissions were the size of the original Surrender piece which was 4 ft X 4ft.
my friend krista ordered this painting as a gift for her cousin with pictures of them when they were little girls. she also ordered a rather large painting that I am so upset with myself, I forgot to photograph before she came and picked it up. Hopefully when she photographs it I can post a picture of it soon- the 17th christmas commission painting!