Breadfruit for Isabella

"Breadfruit"

24x18

oil on stretched liinen

A special family I met while my daughter was in Polynesian dance commissioned me to paint something to honor a legend they had learned about last year. Their Polynesian dance group competed in a National Competition featuring the Tahitian legend of a Chief from Rai'atea.

According to the legend, Chief Rauta'ata and his wife had nothing to feed his four children but the red soil beneath their feet because of the famine that had swept their island. The family went to search for food but could only find some ferns in a cave. Rauta'ata despaired because he could no longer watch his family suffer. He told to wife to sleep in the cave and the next morning he would be gone but would be able to deliver them from all starvation.

The next morning, the wife woke under the dappled shade of a great tree that had grown overnight in front of the cave. The tree was laden heavy with ripe breadfruit that the family gratefully ate to satiate their hunger. Legend has it Rauta'ata transformed himself into the breadfruit...the trunk representing his body, the leaves and branches his arms and the breadfruit his head.

This family was so moved by the legend that they wanted a painting to honor the breadfruit. I suggested they use their daughter as a model instead of having the breadfruit in the piece. The daughter grabbed a Tupperware bowl sat after wrapping a pareo over her top and jeans and sat for a photo. Then also gave me a photo of her in a headdress from a recent performance. So this painting was a result of melding together photos of breadfruit, headdress, her pose and my imagination for the woven basket.

She's simply "Smush"

"Smush"

8x10

oil on gallery wrapped canvas

Smush is a special kitty with 'thumbs' on her front paws. The client wanted to make sure I captured that special feature of Smush's for her portrait.

Pretty Petunia

"Petunia"

8x8 oil on gallery wrapped canvas

I've been fortunate to have been working on several commissions. Here is a kitty that I painted based a forwarded cell phone photo. The client wanted the square format but this slender kitty didn't fill the canvas so I surrounded her with blossoms of her namesake.

A wedding couple...a new beginning

Tiffany & Tyler

14x11 oil on canvas

This is the second commission for the client who had me paint his twins Christian and Hayden. This is for his oldest son who got married last summer. The client could only provide his camera phone pic of this lovely couple. I included a frame because he has commissioned the three paintings. When he received it he said, it was "beautiful beautiful work." *phew*

Frank and Animal Place

"Frank"

8x10 oil on canvas

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I wanted to start out my New Year with another contribution to one of my favorite charities, Animal Place. It is a beautiful sanctuary for farm animals. I've posted paintings of some of their lambs, sheep and roosters but Frank is my first pot bellied pig. He came to them in 2004. He was a victim of a neglect case in Southern California. A man started out with six pigs but in two years ended up with over 300 in less than an acre of land. Now Frank frolics in the beautiful hillsides of Gold Country's 600 acres of Animal Place Sanctuary along with his friends of cows, bulls, chickens, goats and sheep. All profits from this sale go directly to Animal Place to support their wonderful work.

Katie

Katie

6x6 oil on panel

I saw this young lady playing ping-pong with her father at a party the other night. I asked her mother if I could take a quick camera pic of her to paint later. She stopped for a few seconds and I snapped a few shots of this active 11 year old. I like how she didn't even bother to push back the few straggles of errant hair off her face before returning to her game of ping-pong.

Hayden and Christian

Hayden

6x6 oil on panel

Christian

6x6 oil on panel

I was fortunate enough to run into an old friend at a recent party. He and I got reacquainted and he saw my art work on my business cards and I saw his beautiful 2 year old twins. He then asked me to paint his twins for a Christmas gift for their mother. Yes, it was only two weeks away but I was willing to do this for a dear friend. This is Christian and Hayden. We were only able to meet two days before Christmas for the delivery so I wrapped his precious twins in a box for him. When he opened the box, he smiled, said "She's going to love them...I think I'm going to cry." That sentiment was his Christmas gift to me.