My sweet Harry died today. After 11 & 1/2 safe and happy years he somehow ingested antifreeze and despite heroic efforts to save him, we had to let him go. This painting will no longer be for sale.

Wow! A lot's happened since I last showed you what I was working on. I finally finished it. Here's what it looked like (yes, I said looked like)

These are the pictures I was working from and merging together.

As it turns out, the person commissioning the work had been misinformed about which child was the cousin and was to be left out, and which was the brother in the family to be left in and I had to do some fast and heavy editing at the last minute. But I managed to do it freehand with just a brush! I usually have to do a drawing first but surprised myself and here is the finished product which is now on its way to meet the family. (There's more to the story but for the sake of brevity that's the gist of it)

This is what I've been working on for a while. This is a commissioned portrait of a family with a bittersweet story. The two primary pictures I am working from were taken in 1967. One is of the mom and dad in front of the "57 Chevy. He's in uniform because he is about to ship off to Viet Nam. The other is of mom with all of the kids you see here plus a cousin that is not in this painting. I merged the two pictures and have used some school pictures for some of the children.
This family's pictures were destroyed in a fire 3 months before the father was killed in a construction accident after coming back from Viet Nam. The eldest son, on the right, died in his 20s of cancer. The painting is a gift for the son to the immediate right of the father. I love the period in time thats captured here and it will be the only picture wth all of them together. The lady that comissioned this is giving the painting to the boy that is between his father and brother who have passed away for a Christmas gift. She hopes it will bring back some of the closeness the family once had. I'll keep you updated as I go.