"Jason and Gramps"
Oil on Canvas
Beth S. Macre © 2008
I've been spending lots of time going through old photo albums looking for pictures of my son. Since he is a high school senior, we needed old pictures for various senior activities. I came across the photo that inspired this painting. So since I've been going down memory lane, I thought that I would share this painting and some details about it. First of all, this is an oil painting, about 18 x 24, I think. I haven't oil painted in years, but I think I would like to try it again someday. I will have to put that on my to do list.
When my children were young, we usually tried to go on a trip during the summer with my parents and sometimes my sister and her family. This trip, we went to the Alabama Gulf coast. I believe this was Gulf Shores, Alabama. We spent the day at the beach, of course, and while there I took a photo of my father "Gramps" and Jason. They were sitting on the lounge chair and looking at a camera. (But I changed the camera to a bottle of sunscreen.) Being the picture taker of the family, I took the picture because I loved the interaction between my father and his only grandson. My sister has two daughters and I have one daughter and one son, so my dad was excited to have a grandson. Because this photograph was so special to me, I decided to paint it and I gave my Dad the painting for father's day that year. (I don't remember what year it was...but it was probably around 1992 or 93.) So this painting still hangs in my parents' home. It makes me proud to see it hanging in their home.
...are made with love. It is a good feeling when you create something for someone who really appreciates and loves what you created for them. Especially when its family. My nieces love their dogs and wanted paintings of them, so I offered to do that for Christmas. It was close, but I did get them done for Christmas Day. After the delicious meal that Mom made, and we all enjoyed, we all went into the den to exchange gifts. The girls were very excited to finally see the paintings that I had painted, so they both unwrapped the paintings first. They both were very pleased and excited about their new art.
