Lulu and Nie Nie

A few weeks ago we were out celebrating my sweet baby Lucy's first birthday.  I felt that more than any other birthday, this one had been earned.  It has been a year full of struggle, but this little one has fought so hard and been so sweet through it all.   

Her big sister said, "Mom, how come Lucy always smiles even though she has so many hard things?  And how come I sometimes have a hard time smiling even if things aren't that hard?  I am kind of jealous of her smile." 

I thought it was especially nice that we happened to run into Stephanie Nielson (nieniedialogues)that night.  It was the week before her baby was due, and maybe it was because she was almost to have another little girl, or maybe because she could sense that Lucy knows about fighting to live and being happy in the process, or maybe she is just super nice.  At any rate, she could not have been any sweeter or more interested in little Lulu and all that she has been through in her first year.  I am glad to have this photo as a memento of that sweet little time we spent.  She was so sweet talking to Lucy and playing with her and loving her smiles.  I will love to get to show it to Lucy when she is big.  

I also want to read Stephanie's new book, Heaven is Here, actually, I am not really much of a reader, so I looked it up on i tunes to see if I could listen instead, and guess what, it's there, and she reads it herself.  I really want to get it and hear her tell her story in her own voice.

I just checked her blog and she is in New York City right now.  She has posted a schedule of the shows she will be appearing on this upcoming week.

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.

My 4 year old daughter loves to paint

I love that my daughters get so excited about painting.
My 4 year old got so excited after seeing me at BYU last week that she started her own painting once we got home.  I came in to take some photos, and she said she preferred to make a video.  I love it.  It is the first time I have heard her use the word "opportunity".  I love watching her create, I love that she loves art.  I am excited to get to watch what she will create, what she will become.  She is amazing.

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.

"Untitled" at The Rio Grande Gallery

"Untitled" Exhibition from April 6- May 3, 2012
(click for details)

I think it is kind of entertaining that every time I have a painting in a show, my daughter likes to touch it a little while it is hanging there, she knows we shouldn't- but she knows that it is mine, so it is a little privilege she can't resist indulging in.  It cracks me up every time.

This is a great exhibit at the Rio Grande Gallery right now, it is a fun concept- the public is invited to come and "title" the "untitled".  They have cards and pencils on there for you to write your suggestions, and a little hook beside each painting to hang your suggestions on.  Naming paintings is a difficult task, so this should be fun to collect some great titles.  Usually that is one of the hardest parts of the whole process for me.  Occasionally I will have a title all ready even before I start the painting, other than that, I go with pretty obvious descriptions (although I am really running out of those when it comes to red tulips)  sometimes my brother will work on names for me- and he does a great job.

At the opening of this show, my oldest daughter wrote : "Sarah Lily of the Tulip Painter" as her suggestion, it makes me smile.  She was asking me to help her spell each word, and I was eager to hear what each next word would be.  It was suspenseful because it was a slow process, (lollipops in one hand, pencil in the other) but I love what she came up with.

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.

Welcome to Holland

I remember coming across this story years ago, I was googling Holland on the internet, dreaming of visiting someday.  I saw the title "Welcome to Holland" and it looked the the perfect place for me to daydream.  I clicked on it, and quickly found that it was not what I had anticipated, but rather a heart warming analogy.  I was touched, but moved on searching for photos of tulips and windmills and museums.  

This past year, I have thought of that story I read long ago, and I finally searched it out again.  It has new meaning.  It makes me love tulips even more than I did before.  I have always dreamed of going to Italy too, but maybe there's a reason I love tulips so much... and Van Gogh.

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.

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.

one pink tulip

This is a little watercolor I did a couple of years ago at the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival.

I am getting so excited that it is getting to be that time of year again.  Our tulips are already poking through the ground, and these warm days we are getting will make them come even faster.  I have a "Tulip" board on pinterest and I have been having so much fun adding tulips to my collection.
I am so excited for spring!

City Creek

City Creek, oil on panel, 12 X 17
(downtown Salt Lake City)

I just finished this painting,  it was really fun to paint.  I am really grateful for the opportunity I had to paint it.  I would like to paint more city scenes now.  

The list is so long, and it is always getting longer.  

I love to paint.

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.

Red and Gold Tulips

This is a painting I recently finished, it was a commission, and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to paint it. I still haven't come up with a title that I like.

There is a place I go in my sub-conscience when I paint tulips that is so peaceful. I am glad I got to go there, I needed it. Having a commission made it happen now. My client asked me to duplicate another painting that I had painted years ago, "The Jewels of Skagit Valley" which has been a favorite of mine (you can see it on the sidebar here), he asked if it would be the just the same, I said I hoped it would be much better, and I feel like it is. It is good to know that I can improve on something that already seemed so right.

I wish you could see the original, while this is a great representation, you can't see the way the leaves are made of shiny gold and the iridescent and metallic and even glittery colors in the tulips. I love it. It makes me happy to look at and to think about the process I experienced as I created it.

40 X 21, oil on panel

tulips for natalme

I love it when I get to trade my art, a little while ago, my good friend took some beautiful photos of my daughters and I traded this painting for it. She just wrote a nice post about it on her blog natalme which is a very amazing blog, in fact, if you are a pinner, you have probably pinned something off her blog, seriously.

*update*  natalme was featured on The Nate Berkus Show, go here to find her link, you will some of my artwork on her walls in the video

Poppies

"Poppies", oil on panel, 24X36

I actually painted this a while ago, but I have been thinking about it lately, so I thought I would post it. I have a friend from Israel and one day we were talking and I told her I wanted to paint a big painting of a field full of white lilies and that I would call it "Lilies of the Field", and she told me that in Israel, when someone says lilies of the field, they are referring to poppies, I had no idea. I still want to paint the white lily painting, but I am even more interested in poppies than I was before, and I want to explore them even more, especially in this new context.