Jesus and his stick

While I still have a long way to go on this painting, I am finally happy with the placement of Jesus in this painting, the sketchup model really helped me with placement and size and also with the background. I just like to know how the painting works spatially.
 My art teacher kept telling me to just make it work as a composition and to eyeball it but my architects brain really needed to understand the space and to design an exterior space in order to feel comfortable with the placement of things in the background.
I am placing an olive tree in the background for additional references to the happenings during the Easter triduum, and because lots of olive trees would have grown in that geographic area.

I love the way this little Jesus is poking with his stick. It is such a toddler boy thing to do. My son did some stick poking of his own today. These days sticks tend to be of the light saber variety as Star Wars is the current favorite pretend.
 He was helping my husband in the front yard. They were filling up our new planter beds with dirt. For a four year old he is very tough. He was maneuvering the 40lb bags of dirt around by himself. Not picking them up exactly but he could move them and hold them up. He helped Daddy get all 24 bags on to the cart at Home Depot.

I wonder how many times little Jesus helped Joseph and Mary? I just imagine him right beside Joseph in the wood shop learning how to smooth and cut the wood. How much did it slow Joseph down at first to have him there? Imagine how much help he must have been once he got older.
Every day I have to decide whether to slow down and let my kids help or if I just want to get it done as fast as possible.  I need to remember to let them "help" as much as possible while they still enjoy being there beside me.

Painting Time With Tots

 This morning in an attempt to find time to paint I pulled out our kids easle from Ikea and got them going.  It is amazing to me to see the difference in their technique and dedication. My 4 yr old son ends up with grey blobs and gets so frustrated that he quickly gives up. My 2 yr old daughter ended up with over 6 ft of brightly decorated individual marks. She painted for hours and was so content.

It is frustrating for me as an artistic parent to know if or how I should help him when it comes to art. I think that his issues are mostly from perfectionism. If he cant do it just right he will not try.

My son asked me to work on my lily painting so I worked on finishing  these lilies that I began about a year ago.

 

I also pulled out my painting of Mary and suceeded in frustrating myself even further with the background. Finally I decided to model my painting in sketchup. I often used sketchup when working as an architect, so it was an easy way to figure out how my picture should look three dimensionally. It helps me see how large the child outside should look compared to Mary.

Slow Progress

 Pumpkins and Mice was completed during a painting class at Reston Community Center. It was a good way to loosen up after my painting hiatus. I had not painted since my daughter was born in August. I loved teh vibrant color of the pumpkins and enjoyed working on something that required less rigorous representation than portraits.



I have been planning this painting of Mary for some time now. I took pictures of a friend modeling the pose last year and have been waiting till the time felt right to start the painting. I am including the series of photos to show how the painting has been developing. I have a lot still to do but am very excited with the progress that has been made. The painting is titled "Preparing the Todah Sacrifice".

I have also been continuing work on "Contemplating Bluegrass"

 A good deal of my creative energy during the last week was tied up in designing and making my sons 4th birthday cake. He requested angry birds and I did my best to deliver. The kids enjoyed helping to build and paint the pinata, and everyone enjoyed the cake. I did need to catch up on sleep after the party was all over.  Unfornunantly my youngest chose the next few days to get her first two teeth and some restless nights followed.