This is the largest of the portraits I've painted thus far.  It's a 12" x 12" oil on linen panel. 

I started this painting - well, let me rephrase that - I started painting Daniel in early January. I have painted him three times. Make that four times. It's just that this painting, the one you see here, is one I've worked on twice so I think that makes it four times.

Anyway, the first painting I did that I told you I WAS NOT posting was the first one I painted of him. This one, well, I'm happier with. 

And each time I came to the easel to paint Daniel the song that came to my head repeatedly was "Wild Montana Skies" by John Denver. A singer and a songwriter that Daniel's mother has loved as I do. And, Daniel, right now is out in Montana hiking and working and living and breathing in the crisp cold air of the mountains. And I am jealous and happy all at the same time.

I'm leaving you here with the refrain from that song:

"Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes
Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies"

If you've been following along all during the month of January you know that I set out to paint 30 paintings in 30 days. This morphed over the month into drawing and painting almost every day. Initially when I set out to do this challenge the practical side of me said, you can't have everyday for painting, what about that husband and those two kids you've got. Oh yeah, them. So, the weekends were for family and I chose to paint for about 4 hours a day. I suppose I knew at the beginning it would be 30 days minus 8 days which brings me down to 22  actual painting (and drawing) days. And, by the way, laundry was washed, people were fed, bills were paid, and a house was painted in the middle of all of this (yes, I paint walls, too). Not too bad.

So, where did I get and what did I accomplish?

Well, I managed to get my large and a little obnoxious and funny family to go along with my plan from the get go. All these faces you've seen are of my nieces and nephews and my own two kids. And there's many more to go. AND, I know that some of my peeps are out there still waiting to see their faces pop up in my IG feed. Just stay in line and I'll get to you people! 

As for the work, I created 10 drawings. I completed 7 paintings. I attempted 3 additional paintings but scraped them down or wiped them away completely. So, in total, I created 20 pieces and 3 were deemed terrible. Good riddance to those.

Next step~ well, that's the Portrait Painting Project that I've already started. I asked for volunteers to be a part of the project and I'm in the process of going out and photographing non-family - although they all sort of feel like family to me. Which is pretty great. I'll start painting their portraits begining next week. Can't wait. 

So, stick around and keep following me here on the blog and through my IG @NanciTheArtist.