Carissa and the Butterfly

This is the latest off the easel. 18x24 acrylic on canvas of my great niece Carissa who lives in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. I went to Canada this past summer to visit and Carissa very graciously shared her bedroom with me and gave me many wonderful gifts of rocks and coins and handwritten notes. Her Mom (who is a wonderful photographer) caught this shot of Carissa as she came in from the pool to show off the butterfly she just found. I think one day she'll be a scientist of some sort because she loves insects, rocks and animals. Or maybe we all love that kind of stuff at her age!

By the way this is her Christmas present! Shhhh!

The verse on the back is Psalm 65:8

Chewy

Here's my latest painting. It's Chewy, one of my nephew's cats. 12" x 12" acrylic on canvas. It's a donation to an auction to raise funds for caring for animals. I tried to be a little looser on this one too and really had fun with the eyes and the fur. I think I used too much Payne's Gray but overall I'm pretty happy. I hope it raises lots of money for the organization!

Here's my latest. This is a commission for the lovely Miss Marilyn mentioned in a previous post. These are five of her Cocker Spaniels, some of whom have since passed on, done from a photograph she took. She makes the hats and paints the sunglasses to match and used to sell them on the beach in California and Myrtle Beach, SC. They weren't originally on a beach so I made up the background to go with the history. Their name tags are in pink or blue for a girl or boy and the names are on the tags. I had a lot of fun doing this one. If I remember correctly the size is 40" X 30" . Acrylic on canvas.

Here's my latest painting and I absolutely ADORE it! This young man is currently deployed in Iraq and his Mom misses him terribly. His Aunt (Mom's sister) commissioned me to do this so that she can feel close to him from afar. He has such a wonderful face to paint and the medals, flag and uniform were a challenge to paint. The face is the most wonderful part though and I thoroughly enjoyed painting him. I chose Ephesians 6:14-17 for the Bible reference. Our soldiers that protect us and our precious freedom need the very best of protection.

Eric Randall Mahaffey

18X24 Acrylic on canvas