Love Peace Goodness

This was a mural done for a home for battered women. The youth in the community also came with me that day and put together beds and moved furniture.    

Not My Cup Of Tea

Although the title of this painting is "Not My Cup Of Tea." Actually this is my cup. I purchased it recently at a local Pottery Gallery. Then I got a new one that I love better. Tea cups are like that. I was considering putting this painting under the heading "Things I Put in My Coffee Cup", but while I was painting this I was thinking of tea.

Things I Put In My Pink Coffee Cup

Hydrangeas in Pink Cup

Pansy in Pink Cup

Shadows of Turning

 Over Thanksgiving my husband and I went out of town to visit old friends. We began our journey home  around sunset and took the scenic route. On a back road I saw this church with a tree shadow on the side that was stunning. So I hollered "Stop and let me get a picture!" My husband who years ago would have kept driving did stop and I hopped out and got a few shots. Tonight, while I painted it I reflected on how it would have only taken a few moments for the sun to have changed positions and I would have missed this wonderful picture. Sometimes change is not so easy.. change seems to take things away, but sometimes it gives us something better. Certainly an example of a change for the better is that now my husband will take back roads and stop to enjoy looking at shadows on churches, I guess after 34 years he is beginning to understand  my relationship with both my art and church! I love churches and all they stand for, but I have always served in church like it was a full time job... lately there has been a change and I sense God teaching me to slow down and enjoy Him in a more prayerful, quiet way. I am enjoying my gift of painting, I am enjoying the solitude and the peace, I am enjoying going to church and listening. Things change... but I am so glad God never does..Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the father of lights, in whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

A Morning Ride With Gus, Tuffy, and Smokey

A Morning Ride With Gus, Tuff & Smokey.

One Autumn morning I took my camera and went out

 to take photos of  these barns and old house with colorful

 weeds that hugged the porch.

To my delight a family rode up on Gus, Tuff and Smokey

and tied them up to go into the country grocery which was

across the road from the old house. These are well loved horses

and from what I understand they have lots of cute "horse clothes"

you know, blankets and such that they wear. 

Up on Blocks

UP ON BLOCKS

This is an old gas station that I had to drive by 4 times a day for about 15 years. It was on the way to take the kids to school and back. Under the eaves there was always something awesome, sometimes a tractor, or a truck. When I went to take the photo  the old sign was gone and I could not remember what gas company it was. Thankfully the metal case was still hanging from the wire and with a little research I found out it was a Phillip's 66. That rang true, I remember telling the kids that I was going to go climb up the pole and get the sign for their dads 66th birthday because his name is Phillip. Now in my old age I realize maybe it isn't such a good idea to tell your kids you are going to take a sign.. at any rate it was a a trip down memory lane to paint it, and I am glad I took the time to do it before this old station is gone.

Portrait of My Daughter

Portrait of My Daughter

This is a portrait of my daughter sitting in an old art deco chair that belonged to her great grandmother. The Dog is Oz,  and Boisley is the cat calmly looking out of the window over her shoulder. Courtney has always loved books so a portrait with out books would not be complete. The books are on an old Hoosier cabinet passed down from me, on which sits the infamous trailing Philodendron which has traveled with Courtney from city to city and manages to thrive in any environment. Can there be any more sentiment stashed in a portrait? Well, yes! The painting in the background is one of the first canvas paintings I  painted and it travels with my daughter and hangs in her home.

Far Away

This is a painting that I wanted to do because of the way this old lady in India is in such deep thought. I find myself wanting to depict  the lives of women, especially as we get older and wiser.

Gerbera Daisy in Red Vase

First Snow on the Autumn Leaves

First in a Series of Barns and Places along the Wayside

There are old barns, gas stations, beat up trucks, and tractors dotted along the road sides of the paths we take in life. They testify of  the hopes and plans others have had many years ago. As we pass by these places each day  we begin to feel comfortable with them, we know them like the back of our hand yet we never stop and really look at them. Seasons change, time passes as the new moves in and the old goes the way of things of age, these things begin to slowly get rusty or gray, shrivel up, lean, groan and then one day we pass by and notice too late, that it's gone. We miss it and we never really knew we were going to.

 I wanted to stop and paint a few of them. Not for you, or my kids, but for myself. To say hello to them for the first time maybe, and or even possibly good-bye, because even if they are not going away anytime soon, I for one am just passing though.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:14

Pansy in Blue Willow Vase

Non Profit Ministry Project Summer 2012

Tammy uses art in the community in order to reach out to drug addicted youth with destructive habits such as self-mutilation, alcoholism, and drug use. She has had success in rehabilitating and restoring them to a life that is productive and effective contributing members of society. Her nonprofit, Hosanna Covenant Ministries -Art for Transforming" completed a 20x 60 community mural in the summer of 2012 to offer youth an opportunity to express themselves and create something beautiful.

The Difference in Me and Emily Dickinson

IMAGES FROM THE PAST ....

Click on image to enlarge...

This one thing I know, everything is relative to the moment. 

No matter how much you want to do the right thing you can not always do the perfect thing to save someone else's heart from breaking......

especially  in the moment that yours is breaking too. 

It is the intention of your heart that counts, and that is all that matters in the end. Sometimes that Robin is going to faint or fly away whether you help it or not, and sometimes your best efforts are not going to be enough.  All in all- do your best- to do your best -and then you can peacefully rest... in your own little nest!

Pear In Gold Rimmed Glass

Pear on a Petite Stand

Clay Jar and Watermelon

Dual Pansies in oil

Pansy Days

Oranges and Grapes

Waiting For The Dawn- Summer and Winter

Fall Pears

Apples in the Sunlight

Just For Fun

Kerr Lake Diva

This is a quick rendering combining several old black and white family photos. I wanted to do this painting just to relax and have fun. The beloved boat was called the Jolly Ollie, and the marina house in the back ground was Norwood's, run by old Mr Norwood himself. My mother in law who poses here in her stylish hat, had five sons. Somehow according to her  that gave her the rights to Diva status.  Each summer the five boys could not wait til the week of the fourth of July to  go to the lake.  Saturday morning she would pack everything  all up in the car and as all five boys watched in agony she would then sit down by the door to leisurely repair her manicure and paint her toe nails. This apparently drove the boys and her husband stark raving mad.