Well I did skip a week of posting, but I guess I'm excused because of Thanksgiving. Sooooo....here are three paintings I finished since the last time I posted. The barn one is to sell on ebay. Do you like the WHOOOSH of the sky? I thought someone who likes barn paintings and dramatic skies might want it. The other three are meant to be a tryptich...one of my abstracted seasonal pieces. I also finished a commissioned piece last week, a portait two girls.

My painting plans for the coming week are to work on the pieces my perants asked me to do for Christmas. Basically, they are paying me to paint a painting for each of my 5 siblings and thier spouses. They each chosen something quite different. David and Denise want me to paint my creative response to Christ in the Garden of Gethsemene with the apostles nearby. He likes abstracted images and especially liked my Bruce Smith painting hanging in my dining room. Bruce Smith is one of my favorite people and painters in the world. The painting of his hanging in my home is about the New Testament story with the woman taken in adultery, when Christ says "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone." It is such a great painting...I'm sure I will be influenced by it as I'm painting David's. I will be looking at it for guidance, trying to remember all he taught me when he was my professor and advisor in college. Sarah and Craig are having me copy a Minerva Teichert painting of Christ. Minerva Teichert is also one of my heros. She was a Mormon pioneer who studied out East under Robert Henri, Who encouraged her to go paint the Mormon story. After going back to the Salt Lake valley and getting married Brigham Young called her and her husband to help settle in the Wyoming area. There while they lived in a one room cabin while starting a cattle ranch she still painted amazing paintings, huge ones some of them. They show light, intelligence, and a burning testimony. I love her paintings. I guess if Minerva could paint such awesome paintings in a one room cabin I shouldn't complain about still painting in my kitchen. (One day I will have a studio). My sister Jenie...she and Scott are having me paint the Lone Cypress, in California. They provided me with a great picture. Spencer and Jessica gave me two photos and asked me to choose one...and surprise them, so I better not talk about that here. Laura and Jake want me to paint another chair painting, one that will look good hanging next to the one I gave them for thier wedding present. That will be fun too.