A Very Special Painting

When I received the message on Facebook this past summer, I remember reading it with my hand over my heart. Andra introduced herself as the mother of a little girl who had recently died of cancer, a day before her sixth birthday. She wondered if I would do a painting in memory of her daughter.

My initial reaction was that I couldn’t possibly do it. It seemed so sad. I thought that doing the painting would make me feel sad. Then I reread her message.

The girl she was describing was a joyous and happy person. Andra listed the colors she liked best: pink, red, yellow, light blue and green. She told me how Helen loved flowers, ladybugs, rolly-pollies, butterflies, birds, the beach and sea creatures. She said that she wanted the painting to include Helen’s name as well as some of her loves.

I realized that this was a very happy painting she was describing.  Helen enjoyed so many of the same things that I do. She was someone who loved nature and who thoroughly appreciated the world around her. The list of Helen’s likes included many of the things I love to paint the most.

I wrote back to Andra and, over a series of emails, we came to an agreement that I would do a painting for Helen. She wanted a painting that was larger than I usually do. After much thought, I committed to doing a 16 x 20 inch watercolour.

Andra was lovely throughout the process. She left the visual side of the painting entirely up to me. I showed her the initial rough sketch I had come up with and then she very, very patiently waited to see the final version. The painting took me several weeks to complete.

My initial rough sketch when I was trying to figure out the contents and composition.

I started by painting the banner and then began adding all of the other elements.

Slowly but surely, I added all of the creatures and flowers.

With most of main elements in place, I started to pull the sky down and behind the flowers.

This watercolour was an absolute joy to work on but it also was a lot of work. Its size, the number of things it included made it one of the most complex paintings I have worked on in a very long while. The detailed sketch alone took me two days. I don’t generally do detailed sketches but this painting required it. By the time I finished the painting, I realized I had looked at almost 50 reference photos in order to be sure that I was being true to all of the creatures and flowers I had included. In my research, I even found a flower that is called ‘Helen’s Flower’ (Helenium). It’s the yellow flower on the left and right (visible in the full view of the painting). The shell, sea urchin and starfish were all from my seashell collection. Some of my garden flowers were used as models.

A detail from the centre of the painting

Details from the bottom of the painting - A snail, mushrooms, a heart-shaped rock and three rollie-pollies playing together on the rocks at the right hand side.

It was so important to me to create something that was not just a good painting but something that was appropriate to and worthy of Helen’s memory. I wanted to create a painting that Helen would have loved.

Do you want to know something? I didn’t feel sad once while working on this painting. I felt happy. As I was working on it, I found myself thinking ‘Wouldn’t it have been nice to have met Helen and then I realized I did. I had met Helen “through” my painting.

After I sent photos of the completed painting to Andra, she responded within minutes:  “Oh, my goodness...It is absolutely beautiful! Helen would have loved it! The painting is soooo Helen…” Mission accomplished. I had created a painting that was true to Helen. I burst into happy tears.

When I asked Andra's permission to do this blog post about my painting and the story behind it, she said she would only agree if people didn’t feel sorry for Helen or her family. She said “Helen was so joyful and happy, she must be remembered that way too.”

My painting was done for a beautiful, joyful little girl who loved the world and all those around her. This painting is a celebration of a wonderful person named Helen.

Leaf Lover

Some people are tree huggers. I am most definitely a leaf lover. Here's a grouping of leaf paintings from the past year. I love painting them so much.

It's hard to take group shots of paintings and get the lighting right on all of them. The burgundy leaf in the back is showing much darker than it is. Kind of like taking a family photo. There's always someone with an odd look on their face (usually me).

My love of trees and leaves goes WAY back. In grade five, I participated in the 'Tree Bee'. This was a Toronto-wide tree identification contest for elementary school children. Our team didn't win but we were runners-up. To this day, I am pretty good at identifying trees although I won't pretend that all of my grade 5 knowledge has stayed with me.

My stash of elementary school badges in a lovely sweetgrass basket my Mom gave me when I was a little girl.

There seems to be good energy surrounding my painting efforts these days. Someone who saw my prints at the craft show I did recently is coming to my studio next week to look at originals. That means I need to get my studio cleaned up! It's good to have the motivation as I am famous for putting it off. I'll post a photo of it for sure. I also have been commissioned by someone who found my work online to do a flower painting as a Christmas gift. Another lovely opportunity.

With the recent interest in my originals, I have found the motivation to put some of them in my Etsy shop for the first time. Up until now, I've only had prints and cards there. I'll be adding more in the weeks ahead.

I used to sell a lot of originals in the days when I was doing trade shows with my Florescence card line.  I often would decorate my booth with framed paintings and fresh flowers. Shop owners would ask about buying the originals for themselves or they would ask if they could sell them on consignment in their shops. Original paintings of mine are in homes in Canada and the United States. But, I guess because I didn't paint for a long time, I'm having extra trouble letting go of them recently. I get so attached to them! It makes so much more sense for them to be loved and appreciated somewhere and not just live in a drawer in my studio. Lots of thinking lately.

Since we're on a leaf theme, I'll close with a sweet gift that Emma picked up for me on the way home from school today. The yellow maple leaf actually fell right onto her as she walked, so it was begging to come with her. Then she found the little snail that looks like it was made for the leaf.  Maybe another painting?