This painting I painted as a surprise present for my wife, for Christmas. This painting has a emotional, poignant meaning to Donna. Last September Shaunna (in the picture) and Christina went to the site of where my wife and her siblings combined the ashes of their parents (Sherman & Rae Lindsey), Shaunna came to say goodbye.
As a artist I decided to use photo editing software to move Shaunna from the right of the picture closer to the tree on the left of the picture (see above picture).
I then took the edited photo out to the studio and sketched it onto the Gesso Board I decided to paint onto. I just did a outline sketch. Sometimes I do a full shaded black and white sketch, but did not feel I needed it I had a pretty good idea where I was going with this painting. I anchored the sketch with a fixative spray.
I then washed in a thinned paint layer to block in the main compositional elements. As you can see I was not trying to do any work up of the image. My goal with this stage is just to recheck the composition and its elements. I was satisfied with what I had so I then began by painting in the ocean and distant land. Working forward I began to paint the rest of the painting, taking time to stop and re-evaluate as I went.
Donna was thrilled with her Painting. Nothing is better as a artist to know you have created something that has meaning to someone. I painted this painting for my soul mate, and it came from the love I have for her.
