Coming along slowly

This is the progression on the painting, "They Had The Feeling That They Were Surrounded". Along with the design work that we have been making for galleries I have been working on this painting, which is really a love letter to my mother Phyllis, and her two sisters, June and Margaret.

It really is true that artists dream in front of their work. I didn't set out to make this about my mother and my aunts. It just happened that the figures began to feel like them and I found myself thinking of them, which then compounded their existence in the painting.

My mother and her two sisters have always been very close and still are in a way that is impressive and profound. These sisters are drawing strength from one another, like my mother and her two sisters protect and enliven one another. The souls of their guardian angels, parents, relatives, friends hover around them.

Though I seem to most prominently feel my mother and my aunts in this painting, my sisters, my daughters, my grand-daughter are in this painting too. In each face I can see little bits of each of them. They take turns in my thoughts as the paintbrush continues to define the figures, fleshing them out. We are all so connected of course.

The youngest girl is my mother, but she is also my sister Lynne, my daughter Liz, and my grand-daughter June. The eldest daughter is my Aunt June, but she is also my cousin Carol and me. The middle sister is my Aunt Margie, but she is also my daughter Eva and my sister Mary. My grandmother and grandfather, guardian angels and others who love us, who have died, hover around us all, caressing, whispering and guiding.