Steve's painting

This is a picture of Steve's Dad, Arlie, Steve and his two brothers Ken and Kevin. I found this tiny photo when I was putting together a scrapbook for Steve in 2005. For me the picture captures so much of Steve's childhood. Steve's fond memories of his childhood center around his family and the great outdoors. Steve has always looked to his father for guidance and I love that he is the child on the log walking towards his father. I imagine when he sees his father again he will not carefully walk toward his father, but Steve will run with urgency to gratefully embrace his father. I really enjoyed painting this, especially because it has made Steve so happy to look at it everyday.

Random

This is a painting of a picture I found in a magazine. I thought the colors and texture were really interesting. I enjoyed painting it, but I am not sure that I really like the end product.

This is a picture my brother, Joseph, took of a flower in his garden. I loved painting this picture because of the intense colors. I love a lot of color. I am totally going to be one of those old ladies who wears way too much color, I can't wait!


This is a copy of a Renoir portrait. My teacher had me paint it as a little exercise. It was fun.

I don't really member the background behind this picture. I think my older sister found a picture of an old painting and asked me to paint it for her, so I did. So now it sits in my portfolio. It really is not that good, but I enjoyed painting it nonetheless.

A Mother's Love

I love the joy in the mother's eyes in this picture. This is my second portrait. I feel like I improved a great deal from the first portrait (below). You be the judge.

This is actually my first oil painting. I found the picture in a National Geographic and immediately fell in love with it. I love the way the mother is embracing and smiling at her baby. And I love the confidence with which the baby peers at the camera, as if the baby knows he is in the safest place in the world, in the arms of his mother. I also loved the textures and colors in the picture. I learned a lot painting this picture and while I now see there are so many things that I could have done better, I still love it. My teacher challenged me to do a portrait for my first painting and I am so glad that she did, because as intimidating as it is every time I start a new portrait, I love it and I am not afraid to know I can do it.

Random Paintings from travel

This painting is one of my firsts. It is a picture that my sister took when she was in Burma. I have learned a lot since painting this picture, but it was a lot of fun. I completed it in 1996, while at BYU.








This is a picture of a flower that I saw when I was in India. I traveled to India in 10th grade. I remember so vividly taking this picture with my little wind up camera. I took this picture in Calcutta. I remember seeing this flower and just thinking it was so beautiful and such a stark contrast to the rest of Calcutta. Calcutta is an amazing place, but it is just so depressing and heart wrenching. I learned a lot about beauty & happiness on this trip. I have traveled a lot and I don't know that I had ever been to a place that was so poor as Calcutta, but the amazing thing is I had never come across such happy people either. These people literally lived in mud huts and cooked their food in the ground, but life was good. It was a great lesson for me to learn. The real beauty in this city is the amazing people. I guess the flower sort of represented for me the hope and beauty that exists despite what appeared to me, to be very unfortunate circumstances.

Prisma Colors

When I found out I was pregnant with Izzie I promptly stopped oil painting. I instead learned to use prismacolor. I love this medium, there is little clean up and it is easy enough to fix mistakes.
I chose to draw this picture of Max, because when he was about 18 months he was obsessed with his "Thomas" bear and his fireman hat and frequently I would have to fight with him to keep a shirt on. I, also, love the fact that you can see his nubby little toes. It was a lot of fun to draw this picture.

I chose the picture of Syd because she looked so beautiful in her Halloween (04) costume that her aunt Becky made for her. Sydney was and will always be a little princess. She wore this dress so much and still tries to fit into it. I, also, love that I can tell in her expression how much joy she felt that day as she looked at her cousins and contemplated her next move. She's so cute.

Both pictures were completed in 2005, prior to Izzie's arrival.

Precocious Little Syd

The first painting is of a picture I took of Sydney when she was not quite three. I took the picture on the UW campus in Seattle. After 25 years, my dad received his PhD and we went to support him. We are so proud of him. Anyway, I completed this painting at the end of 2004. It took several months, because I am a perfectionist. My art teacher finally told me that I was done. The bottom pic is of Sydney eating an apple when she was almost four. I have yet to complete this picture. I need to lighten her hair and finish her hands. Sydney is such a thoughtful child, you can see it in her eyes. I think this pictures really capture the thoughtfulness that I always see in her eyes. Of course her eyes also tell me, before her giggles, when she is telling a "tall tale."

Baby Max

This is a painting of max when he was about 8 months old. I love the photo because his little smirk reminds me of my Grandpa Wells who passed away when I was pregnant with Max. Wasn't he such a cute baby? He's my wild little man and i love every inch of him.