36 x 48

Oil on Canvas

Our pond at Nimrod Hall has had many lives. It has been a swimming hole, then a fishing pond, then a wildlife/turtle/beaver paradise, then a fishing pond and now it is a swimming hole again. Artists like to swim so now we swim. This is a painting of two boys (who happen to be related to me) who I have seen enjoy that pond like nothing else. They rarely go to the river and instead brace the freezing cold pond that is spring fed and never warm (although in late July the top foot or so is so nice) but once you are out, even on the hottest of days, you grab your fluffy towel and dry away the goosebumps. We have chairs set up and we read, sunbathe, and all around enjoy the pond every single chance we get. This piece was painted to try to capture that moment after the swim, the heat of the sun with its warm shadows and vivid colors and that feeling of deep summertime. I always get asked how I can sell paintings of my own children. It is simple. If I kept every one I would have hundreds of them. Artists paint what they know and my kids are what I know best. I want the works to find homes and love from other people as my joy is in the making of the piece.

People ask me all the time about the no faces in my paintings and it is simple, the specific face is not what is interesting to me, it is the fact that it represents all people or capturing one with a few simple strokes of the paint. THAT is fun, but worrying with all the features when my interest is in the scene is just irrelevant to me.  When anyone see's painting of my kids that I've done they are stunned to find that I can paint a face because I guess it seems like I can't when it is just a choice.

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