Some new challenges

Well it's been a busy spring around here. While the flowers were busy blooming Pascale was busy making a little miracle of her own...sweet baby Theo. And as all new moms (and old moms) know things can get busy with a little one around.

The Sparks household has been busy too (though no new babies!!). Franka finished kindergarten, swimming, soccer and her capoeira lessons all in one week and has now moved on to the land of camps. We have all just been trying to keep up.

My last challenge is almost finished, but in the meantime my sweet (98 year-old) grandmother issued a challenge of her own. She asked for a small painting that she could have for her apartment. I have been wanting to make her a painting for a while but wasn't sure if this would be something she would want or like (as everyone has different tastes in art), so I jumped at the chance.

This is a painting of my grandmother's 3 children, Owen, Muriel and Buck Godlonton probably sometime in the mid 1940's. It was wonderful to paint and I changed the colors a bit to give it a sepia feel that I really love. And as my father passed away about 10 years ago(predeceased by my Uncle) it has some special meaning to me.

Now I just need to make it into Calgary to deliver this painting....so mums the word. Grandma doesn't know yet!!!

Challenge #4

I've recently purchased a new camera and as I've been fooling around with the settings I started thinking about doing a painting using the zoom function. So my challenge is to do a regular painting and then do another one that is zoomed in on one small spot of the first painting. Sort of a "Where's Waldo" approach. Sorry Pascale, as you're getting closer and closer to having that baby I give you a challenge that is not one, but two pieces!

Very cool!

Hey Fonda!
Good work my dear! Your painting technique is a perfect match for portraits... Dan must be so proud of this very cool rendition of him looking relaxed and 'hip'!
What is our next challenge?

Last but not Least

My painting of my second half (Dan) is finally finished. It's been a bit of an epic journey getting it done which has involved: Dan's crazy work schedule in the last little while, a child who has had both strep throat and mono in the last month, plus all the other things that come and go with regular life in a family. But finally it's off the easel and I can move on to new projects.

I love this painting because it is Dan on vacation, which is a much more relaxed Dan than we usually see at home (note: that there is no cell phone present!). I took the photo of this while we were on vacation in Jamaica last winter and I loved the sky and clouds behind him. We had stopped at a great rest stop by the ocean when I snapped the photo.

One of the great side effects of this project is that I'm starting to learn how to use photoshop a bit more effectively to clean up my photos of my paintings (which I'm sure Pascale will be happy about, as she was my go-to girl about this kind of stuff). This is my first post that I have done the editing myself! Got to love the photoshop manual!

My hubby!

This is my painting of Jeff, my man. He will be a father in three months and lately he has been caught up with renos and work and has had no time to climb at the gym or ski. The photo used for the painting was taken in November at the end of our last kid-free road trip. Now only God knows when he will have the time to work on these muscles again!