Ethiopian Coffee ceremony, 8x10 painting

This 8x10 painting isn't quite finished, but it is getting close! I have been so busy creating custom portraits these last few months, that I really needed to paint a 'just for fun' painting. This painting was inspired by a picture taken by my friend Cindy M. 

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony 8x10 watercolor

I had a lot of fun creating this watercolor. I used much darker colors than I usually use for the backgroun, which I feel adds to the drama. I wish I had taken pictures along the way, because as usual, I glazed MANY different washes of color in the under-painting!

"Sweet Dreams" 12x15 watercolor

I am almost done with another painting!

This painting is inspired by Brenda's photograph - thank you for letting me paint from it!

"Sweet Dreams"

"First Day Home" - 15x19 watercolor

It has been so long since I last posted - sorry! Life has been crazy with house guests, a family trip to my folks' house, and more house guests.

I have been working really hard on several larger pieces, as well as several custom paintings. This one still needs some small tweaks, but is mostly finished. It is a large version of my "I'll Protect You" painting, and I've named it "First Day Home." I wanted to capture the love and promise of protection from the Mom, as well as the little girl's mixed feelings of wanting to be snuggled and loved, but also still being really darn afraid.  

First Day Home 15x19

This painting comes with a cool story. As some of you remember, I painted "I'll Protect You" as part of my Everyday Art Project last year:

In addition to selling prints of the little painting, I also sent free ones to a few of the families in our agency who had been waiting at #1 for a long time. Just a week after I sent one of the Mommas a print, her family got a referral for their daughter... and she looked so much like my little painting!

I was thrilled and honored to have been able to bless and encourage this family with my art... not even knowing how it would touch their hearts!

Once sweet Baby O was home, her Momma sent me a picture of herself posed with Baby O in the same way as the "I'll Protect You" painting. The picture she sent me is the photo that I painted from when I created "First Day Home."

Prints will be available in my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks.

Work in progress - Makeda - DONE! (I think)

I think I am finally finished with this painting. 

I have added some highlights to her lips and nose, and have blended the shadows on the left side of her face a little more.

Here is a detail view of Makeda's face. I love how expressive her eyes and mouth have turned out. 

Ps: I worked on Makeda's eyes a little more, and am much happier with how they look now (Feb 19). NOW she really is done. 

"Miheret" - 8x8 watercolor illustration

‎"Miheret" - 8x8 watercolor - thank you to Cindy Burt for letting me use her fantastic photograph of her beautiful daughter dancing in the evening sunlight.

This painting was HARD to do, with all the transparent whites that in reality aren't white, but many colors... I'm pleased with the end result though, especially the sun glow. 

Sorry folks, no prints will be sold of this painting, by request of Miheret's mother.

For-fun ACEO paintings

I'm really enjoying the freedom of being able to paint whenever I feel like it (rather than having the pressure of painting at least one complete painting every day - even if it was self-imposed). I've started several pieces, soon to be finished. Because I hate to waste good paper, I filled the "gaps" with some ACEO paintings.

Hamari woman from Ethiopia - they coat strands of their hair in red clay mixed with oil, and coat their foreheads in the same mixture. 

Young woman wearing a tie-died dress. You may notice that I only initialed these paintings, rather than signing and dating them. I'll sign and date them on the back.

I started these two little paintings in my watercolor class last week. Seeing my very exact method of previous paintings the instructor challenged me to let the colors mix on the wet paper instead of pre-mixing them on the pallet. It was a little scary to be painting pure Venetian red and pure magenta and pure indigo paint into the faces of these women, and letting them mix into shades of brown there. Overall I am very pleased with the effect though! The instructor also challenged me to make the background more interesting by adding some of the colors from the foreground. I may have overdone it a little in the painting of the Hamari woman - but with practice it will get better.

Keep in mind that these paintings are only 2.5"x3.5"... 

Woven Together, 6x8 illustration

A few weeks ago I was approached by an adoptive Mom who asked if I could paint a picture that honors both of her daughter's mothers - her first mother (birth mother) and her Mommy. It took me over a month to come up with a good solution - I wanted the picture to be pleasing to a child, so it wasn't allowed to be sad or too serious, yet I wanted it to convey something deeper, too.

While reading a book about adoptive parenting, I came across a beautiful metaphor for an adopted child's life: the daughter, her birth mother, and her adoptive mother are each holding a ribbon or string of a different color. As the daughter grows and matures, those three strings become intricately woven together, because they are all part of her identity, her past, her future.

I will have prints of this painting available in my Etsy shop in a week or so. Shoot me an eMail or an Etsy message if you would like to reserve one. I'll have 5x7 and 8x10 available.