Early Morning Walks

Texas has spectacular sunrises and sunsets. I am reminded often that Texas makes up for not having mountains in this area by its beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Ten Year Old Safety Patrol Leader

This portrait of my husband Clint was painted a couple of years ago as a birthday gift. I worked on it for a few days while he was away on a business trip. He loved it and I was very happy about his reaction. He had told me how his self-esteem soared when a teacher chose him for the "Safety Patrol" leader. He was so impressed he chose to wear the white patrol belt on "picture day."

A guest/friend in our home loved the portrait, it resulted in 9 commissions for portraits of her grandchildren! She said she had been looking for someone to paint her grandchildrens' portraits.

Portraits are a labor of love, I did not readily agree to the large commission job of the nine protraits, I had to ponder it for a while. Not only is paint used as a medium in doing portraits...I always add some blood, sweat and tears.

Mom/Eileen

Recently my husband Clint and I visited his mom who resides in a Georgia retirement village. We always have a good visit, good conversation and good food. Mom/Eileen (she is Eileen to me) is doing very well to be approaching 87 years of age. She stays very active with her many friends and social events. We enjoyed meeting many of her friends while we were there.

Her apartment has a beautiful view overlooking a waterfall. We enjoyed sitting in the evenings, overlooking the falls and hearing the flowing water. One could shut your eyes and think you were by a mountain stream. Mom/Eileen keeps up with the latest books and we always have our book discussions. I recently have come to realize we all three are wordsmiths. This time we were discussing the names for some groups of birds and animals. I just learned the phrase for a group of starlings is "an affliction of starlings." We missed the
trivia contest on this visit, it is always fun.

We enjoy hearing Mom/Eileen's stories of her family and growing up in Chicago. She has the most wonderful photo albums that documents her families' lives, photographs that go back to the turn of the century.

As always, it seems our time there flies past us. We had a great time and look forward to many more visits. Thank you, Mom/Eileen!