A visit to my Mother in Georgia results in two new paintings!

I got home yesterday after spending a few days with my mother in Georgia.  On the drive to my mother's house, I passed many scenes that I could have photographed and possibly painted.  However, one barn in particular was so pretty with the sun shining on it that I pulled over to the side of the road and took a few photos. After I got to my mother's house, I set up my easel in her breakfast room and started painting.

You might wonder why I would paint at my mother's house.  It's because it's a very tender experience! She always comes in and sits next to me and watches me as I paint - asking questions and making comments. To her, I'm a magnificent artist, and she's interested in how I create paintings. It is a pure blessing for me - just a couple months away from the big 7-0 birthday - to have my mother (who is 96) still here to cheer me on as an artist. So whenever I visit my mother - I paint, and I treasure every second of that special time with my mother.

Here is the painting of the barn in Alabama. Since I wasn't very far from Fort Payne, I named it "Sweet Barn Alabama."

"Sweet Barn Alabama" Oil on 11x14 canvas panel  

After I finished the barn painting, I asked my mother what she would like for me to paint. I've already painted a vase of yellow silk roses that she has on a long "camp meeting" table in her family room. And I also painted some of her miniature church collection.  Those two painting are below.

My mother said she'd like to have a painting of a basket that she'd bought for 15 cents when we lived in Kentucky in the early 1950s. That basket has been on display in every single house she has lived in since then. She also mentioned some fresh hydrangeas that one of my sisters had brought her earlier that day. They were a pretty pink color, and my mother loves pink. The next day when my niece was visiting, I asked her to help me set up a still life with the basket and hydrangeas. We set out the basket, put three hydrangeas in the basket, and then, since it needed something more, we added a wooden book stand that my mother's brother had made for her, and on the book stand we put a Greek Bible that belonged to my father, along with a cross-stitched book mark that another sister had made for my mother. We put the whole thing on a table with a blue tablecloth. Here is the painting of that still life. What I like best about this painting is that the basket is immediately recognizable as the basket I've seen all my life.

"The Kentucky Basket"  16x20 oil on linen panel

The background is a pale blue - which doesn't show up well in the above photograph. My mother is already planning where she will put this painting.  I brought it home to let it dry, to varnish it and frame it. Then I will give it to her.

So a few days at my mother's - and two new paintings.