Beauty for Bagdad

This is a painting I did in 2008 for the Lighthouse chapel in Iraq. Read the following for the whole story of how this came about:

I decided to feature my husband Roger's art work in this post. He is a stained glass artist. He took it up as a hobby 6 years ago and has completed over 70 stained glass windows or panels in that time. I assist him on some projects with the design element of the work and also color selection. Here is a project we worked on together in 2008. In July of that year our younger son Brian was deployed to Iraq for the second time. After being there a few days he called us and told us about the new chapel on the base. When he had been there before the chapel met in a tent and now they had a building. He said it was very stark and "vanilla". He suggested we build some stained glass panels and that I send some paintings to help decorate the chapel. After much consultation with a chaplain's assistant via email we came up with the subject matter of the panels which consisted of a butterfly, dove & rainbow, a lily and a lighthouse. Thee stories were published about this project,one in the Arizona Daily Star, one in the Suncity Tipster and one in the Oro Valley Magazine. Here is my husband Roger and myself with three of the stained glass panels before they were shipped to Iraq. The fourth one is in the photo below. Each of the above windows were installed in a cabinet the same as the one in the following photo.

This photo was taken at the dedication of the stained glass panels. Notice the beautiful cabinet that was built by a young airman to showcase the panel. Our son Brian is on the right and the Chaplain is on the left. Brian came home just a few days after the dedication. He retired from the Air Force with 26 years of service a year ago.

Another Painting Sold

I broke the ice at the Town Hall Exhibition with the sale of this painting. It has always been one of my favorites. I like the red apple and the red background with the contrast of the yellow sunflowers. Even I like some of my paintings better than others. I have a concept of what I want to do when I start a painting but the finished product is always a surprise to me. Some come out better than my mental picture and some not at all what my original idea was and some are a disappointment. It seems though, that even if I am not happy with what I do I always find someone who likes it!

Oro Valley Town Hall Exhibition

I was honored to be invited to have an exhibition of my art at the Oro Valley Town Hall. I decided to make it an eclectic show featuring paintings from my various styles. This wall is all "Southwest Whimsy". I will attend the July 21 council meeting and be introduced as the artist.

These paintings are from my "Traditional Florals", "Fantasy Flowers", "Tootie Fruti"

and "Cross Collection" If you click on the photos they will enlarge and you can get a better view of the paintings.

Happy 4th of July!

Confetti Explosion

24x30

$150

I enjoy doing an abstract every so often. Here is one I did awhile back. I am posting it today because It sort of looks like fireworks which would be appropriate for the 4th of July.

Two New Projects.

Ocotillo & Saguaro 2

16x20

If this painting looks familiar that is because it is the second version I have done of the same subject matter. I showed the first one at the exhibition at the Tucson Airport and sold it to a woman from Colorado. Another couple saw it and liked it so commissioned me to do a similar one for them. The colors are slightly different. So far I haven't had prints made of any of my paintings but instead do another original of ones that seem to be popular. No two paintings will be exactly the same but will be similar to the original.

This is a tray that I found at a garage sale and painted to take to an art fair in October. It is about 18 inches long. I will be selling it for $35. I always have a special sale price on many items at the art fairs that I do. I will also have a lot of smaller paintings that will be priced to sell. I'll post more information when it is closer to the time of the events I will be doing.