Merry Christmas

This is a little painting I did for Kids on the Move to use for their Christmas card this year.

I think tulips are appropriate for everything, but especially their Christmas card.

Last month I was honored to be part of a wonderful event, the annual appreciation breakfast hosted by Kids on the Move.  My paintings were used on the invitations, the name badges, the place settings and I was able to present a giclee to Kids on the Move that now hangs in their building.

I like the idea of tulips for Christmas, I added the berries to make it more festive. I think a wreath is a great symbol or greeting, or welcoming. I think it goes so well with the "Welcome to Holland" story that I love.

Welcome To Holland

copyright 1987, by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.  After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and  says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy!  I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.  The important  thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.  It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.  It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less   flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you  begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful  time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go.   That's  what I had planned."  And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream  is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very  special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

fresh tulips in November

Recently I had a wonderful opportunity to share some of my art at an appreciation breakfast for Kids On The Move.  It was beautiful.  I will share all the details in another post.  For now, I just want to share this little painting.  They had fresh tulips on all the tables, and I asked if I could take some home to paint, my request was granted and this is what I have so far.  

I am so grateful for the whole opportunity.

While I was there, I met our Mayor, Jim Evans.  He mentioned me in his blog post about it.  I am so honored and grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

tiny shiny tulips

Here is a tiny painting I recently did, interestingly, painting little doesn't necessarily mean painting faster, sometimes I spend more time on a little one than I do on a bigger one.

This one has metallic gold and silver and some glitter too.

Lucy's Birthday Gift to Primary Children's Medical Center

When Lucy turned one, she didn't celebrate like most one year olds do, she has a g tube.  I suppose I could have pureed a cupcake and put it in her tummy.  One of the things we did to celebrate was donate some of my art to Primary Children's Hospital on Lucy's behalf.  I loved that Lucy got excited about exploring it before we delivered it.

This is a  giclee print on canvas of my painting called "Not Arrayed Like One Of These".  The original is an oil painting on panel and it is about 4 feet by 8 feet.  This giclee is about half the size of the original.  

My kids love to wear the sick masks at the hospital every time they go (whether they need to or not).  We had such a fun time delivering it.  The girls couldn't believe we got to go to the hospital just for fun and not for any appointments.

I signed it:  Lucy's Mom (Sarah)

Here it is in it's final spot- the Dental Clinic (3rd floor, south end).  I was initially hoping it could go somewhere where we actually spend time in the hospital, and this wasn't one of the clinics that Lucy visited.  Ironically, she has now visited them a few times, and it looks like we will spend plenty of time here in the future.  It looks great here and everyone who works in the office loves it.  I am so glad we could do this for Lucy.

lunch and learn at Deseret Book

Last Friday I was the featured artist at The Deseret Book Flagship Store at City Creek.  Richard Paul Evans was there as the featured writer.  He was signing copies of his new book, "The Road to Grace".  He was very nice.  

The City Creek shopping area is open now, and the weather was so nice, so there was a good amount of traffic in the store.  I always love getting to get out and talk to people about my art.  It is always a great opportunity to be invited to Deseret Book.

I am also excited about the new products Deseret Book is working on for me.  They are trying to get a couple of different options of my Noah's Ark painting into some frames that will work great for children's rooms.  I had a couple good title options for that at one time and I am trying to remember what they were, something about hope that referenced the tulips and rainbow... I should have written them down in a better spot.

Purple Tulips unveiled

I unveiled this painting yesterday at the BYU Women's Conference.

It has been a fun couple of days, mingling with artists, seeing old friends, making new friends and signing prints.  My 4 year old daughter visited and she went up to a group of ladies and handed them each bookmarks and said, " You should go buy some of my mom's art."  She did it all on her own, and they did come buy some.  I am glad she is so proud of me.  I am so proud of her.

BYU Women's Conference Art Unveiling

My daughters love to come join me in my studio- they have their own paintings, but they especially love to get to paint a little on what I am working on.  Sometimes it creates a little extra problem solving for me, and sometimes it gives me precious little bits of paint that end up being some of my favorite spots in the end.  My daughter helped me out a little on this one, and so did my baby.  

You can come see how all our efforts turned out tomorrow when I unveil the finished painting at the BYU Women's Conference

at noon tomorrow, Thursday the 26th at noon.

I will have many different prints to purchase (and for me to sign for you) including prints of this new painting.  I will also have many other images  available as giclees, framed giclees, loose prints and even bookmarks.

Come visit me at The BYU Bookstore.

I will be there both on Thursday and Friday from 10 -2 and 3-6.  I will be in the basement, just down the stairs by the infamous candy counter.

And I promise my daughter will get a cut when I sell this original.

painting with my baby

I have always painted with my babies, my oldest daughter seemed most content to just watch, she liked it, and she never interfered when she was a baby, she never even reached for my brush.  It worked really well, as you can see here and here and here.

My second was almost as easy to paint with as you can see here, here, here, here or my favorite, here.  She did start grabbing my brush, and things got a little messy a couple of times.

This little one is proving to be much more active during our painting sessions.  I still love it.  I treasure it.  It makes me happy.

It's getting to be that time again

 

Thanksgiving Point started their tulip festival in 2005, and I was elated. 

Later that year, they heard that I love tulips, and they invited my to come and paint.  I have spent as much of my time as I could every spring in their gardens painting.  I have lent them my art, and they have lent me their tulips.  Each year since then, we have made a poster featuring some of my art.  I have also had many media opportunities, news paper, live television, and even a mini documentary(you can see links to some of these on the sidebar).  It has been so much fun.  I have been pregnant or had a baby strapped to me most of the time these past few years, and I cherish the memories of being in the gardens with my daughters and with the tulips.  I love getting to visit with everyone who comes to the festival.  I am excited that it is almost that time again.

Each year has been a little different- it is hard to predict when the tulips will start blooming ahead of time, because there are so many factors that go into that.  I painted this little watercolor above one year when the tulips bloomed a little later than the scheduled festival dates... and these were some of the most opened ones at that point.  However, this year, I do mot think that will be the case- I think the gardens will be filled with tulips in bloom for this year's festival, 

April 13 - 28, 2012

(closed Sundays)

10 am - 8 pm

and there are so many different tulips, the gardens change so much- there are early, middle and late tulips, so there are new tulips coming up all through the spring.  The gardeners do such a wonderful job planting the flower beds so that as some tulips fade, new blooms replace them.  Thousands of people will gather to see them because tulips make people happy.

Little Red Tulips, oil on panel, 5X7

I just found this little painting in my studio, and I have decided to paint that I am going to paint a series of little tulip paintings like this.  I am excited.

The only part I am not excited about is coming up with titles, I have painted so many tulip paintings, I am running out of ideas for names.