Charleston SC Cove

Harkers Island NC Light House Horses

This is my husbands favorite place in the world to fish. He works hard from sun up to sundown  7 days a week. He is lucky to get that rare day when the wind is not blowing and the waves are not too rough and everything lines up just right at work. In the past 35 years I generally would not go with him because he leaves at 4 in the morning and also the waves can whip up choppy quickly and make for a scarey ride.This particular day I decided to brave it and was so glad I did. The ocean was like glass and the horses were out getting a early morning breakfast.

Averette Home, Snowy Memories

Rainy Day on the Corner of Jackson & Grant: China Town, San Fransico

   This by far took the longest of any painting I have created.

 It was like a puzzle, every day I put it together piece by piece. 

I was afraid to do the Chinese lettering because I know how easy it 
Is to make a mistake and then who knows what you just wrote in Chinese? 
My fear is grounded on reality. 

Many years ago we had some Spanish speaking employees for our business  I had

 a little hand book  on learning Spanish and was trying

 to learn a phrase or two. They put up with me . I could say "¿Dónde está Phillippe ? 

( Where is Phillip?) and they 

would point me in the right direction. Then one morning I was on my way to work and

 I hit a cat that ran in front of my car, and I wanted to tell them. I thought I remembered 

what the word" dead" sounded like, and everybody knows cat is gato so I went into work

 and said " El gato es una mierda." Then I made little hand motions 

and charade signals to relay the story of the cat. They nodded solemnly. I figured they

were feeling pretty bad for that cat.
 Later that week I was with a group of friends one of whom could speak fluent Spanish, 

so I told him what I said to the
workers about the cat. He laughed until he cried. I was puzzled-"
"What?" I asked, "What?" He said between gasp of breath..
"Tammy, you were so close, but you said, "The cat is shit." 

 If you wanted to say the cat is dead you
should have said...El gato está muerto. 

HUM

 El gato está muerto - El gato es una mierda." ..

.. it sounded the same to me.
And so, it is true, close doesn't count
 ...........except in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Psalms 23 Trilogy

The women who commissioned this painting said she did not want art that came from a store or off a shelf. She wanted to be a part of the design and wanted an original painting in her living room by a real artist she knew-( me!)  She gave some serious thought to what she wanted to say and the feeling she wanted to convey .  When I finally met with her and she  told me she wanted to talk about a trilogy of  the Twenty Third Psalms I was really excited. These paintings are each 18 x 24 inches and I put the brown border on them to show how they would look when they were framed. One of the things she loves are poppies and so we did some research and found out that poppies do grow in the Holy Land so I put them at the foot of the mountain in the final painting of the sheep being rescued.  I read a book on shepherds and his care of sheep before I began and we discovered that there are  blue flowers that can make the sheep sick so I used little blue flowers in the painting where Jesus is looking for the lost sheep. We decided to go with a sky that was yellow and looked moody. It was early morning when  I delivered them and she was very happy with the results of all our collaboration. Her husband was sitting in the living room drinking his coffee  and in front of him was the blank wall  that would soon give him a peaceful scene to enjoy ... 

Quick Trick Book Stack

I still have a plethora of books hanging around. My kids love books and as they got older the books accumulated. I wanted to do a still life one afternoon so I decided to put them to use along with some pansy's from the yard. I stacked them all in my shadow box and adjusted the lighting, it took a few tries to get it all balanced and looking the way I wanted it to look and some where along the way I began to call it a "Quick Trick Book Stack."

Maine: Walking the Dogs on the Breakwater

Bella In Black and White

Commission Dog Portrait: Bella is a proud mischievous little Shih-zu who, had she been human would have been a great little runway model. She posed very prettily for her photo shoot and we had a hard time choosing the one to be painted because they all came out so nice. This is because Bella is still young enough to  look good all the time .

Floyd: The ECU Pirate Dog

Floyd was a special commission for  "Jennifer" a little girl who was in my 2 year old class way  back in the day.  Jennifer grew up to be a lovely young lady and Floyd was her pet. About the time Jennifer got pregnant with her first child  Floyd passed away. Her mother called me and asked me to paint a picture of Floyd so they could have it on the wall for the baby to see as he grew up.  They chose the Photograph of Floyd with this big OLE grin on his face enjoying the sunshine. Jennifer was my absolute favorite two year old way back then before I had any children of my own and it was a special treat to be a part of her life again.

After School Bible club

This week I decided to work on my blog by adding a few community things. I am glad I did, it has been nice to stroll through memory lane.  I am sure now that maybe I am ready to retire and let the world spin on with out me. 

Looking back at this bitter cold wet day  in 1996 I remember the thankfulness I felt towards the men who showed up to pour all that concrete that the Sunrock company delivered for free. That side walk these men  labored over was at least 350 feet long, they were wet and tired but also set up ten heavy concrete picnic tables that were donated by the area churches and they  did it all in good humor.

Sometimes we rescue.

Sometimes we need rescuing.

That was a day I was rescued.

I am forever grateful that I am not a man.

It was hard work

I am forever grateful for men.

The kids made cement walk way stones.

Nap Time For Ricco: Tricolored Light Beagle

Ricco is my brothers dog and he was delighted I choose to paint him one day when I had a rare break between commissions. My brother was really happy I wanted to take Ricco to some art shows and let him be a star.

Posing With His Dogs: Painting from an old black and white photograph.

This was a gift I did for my mom and it made her very happy today. Her father died when she was a teenager and she was the apple of his eye. She told me stories of how protective the two dogs Queen and Belle were when she was growing up. My mother is very stoic - up til today I rarely have seen her get emotional. She kept saying it was like he was in the room with her. Then I realized, all these years all she had was a few small black and white grainy, faded photos of him. Seeing him in color on a 18 x 24 inch canvas brought him back to her. I never realized how powerful it could be to put color into her world in this way. Over and over she called me the next dew months telling how he greeted her each morning and how much it changed her to have him in the room with her. She felt at home for the first time in a long time... in a home she had lived in for over 30 years.

Boxer Portrait: Cooper

This was a pet portrait commissioned as a Christmas gift to a young man by his mom. I pondered if a man so young would appreciate this unusual gift. No doubt, I was told he loved it.

The photo below is the original Photograph of Cooper that her mom sent me to paint Coopers Pet Portrait.

The Divine Eternal Reunion: Together Forever

 The Divine Eternal Reunion: Together Forever was envisioned by a nice man who commissioned me to paint it for him. This is his view of what heaven will be like and  as an artist it was my job to paint it as he saw it and what he wanted. That was a hard job! He called early one morning to discuss his idea and said he wanted me to work with him on this because he had seen some "spiritual" paintings I had done and trusted me with his idea. He explained that he had lost his beloved wife just three years earlier and wanted a painting of heaven and the reunion that we will all have at the coming of Christ. He began to share with me his idea of a painting of heaven based on Revelation 21:4.  I opened my bible and began to read the  verse. And God shall wipe away all of their tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall their be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.✞

 

 

We discussed the bright light and the colors of the rainbow and multitudes of people all hugging and being reunited with great joy. As an artist it is hard to not add your own ideas so I  got really into the angels and how Jesus would look and wanted to do a throne, a lion and a lamb. Later we both decided that it would best serve the idea of the painting if we left that off.  We talked about an angel pouring out all the prayers of the saints based on Psalms 56:8Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? and  also  Revelation 5:8And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.