The Chicago area was experiencing record cold this winter - -23F with dangerous wind chills - so I decided I needs some Spring in my life. I checked my files of photos from the Morton Arboretum, always an inspiration for floral paintings. This peony lives on the Joy Path there (named for Joy Morton, the founder of the Arboretum). That area is one of my favorite spots to snap reference photos as the flowers are always posing.
While I was working on a colored pencil painting of my granddaughter and the horse she rides, I remembered one of my favorite old vacation photos, taken with my favorite old camera, a Canon AE1. Zach, my son who turned 40 last year, was 4. The photo (I found it!) was fading, but I thought it could be recreated as a painting. The thing I found interesting as I worked on the face was that I could see the way the adult features would emerge from the child's face. This piece was selected to be included in the book CP Hidden Treasures 5 which is being released April of 2019.
