The Portraits

Last year about this time I discovered an artist who lives down in bayou country, actually in Youngsville, Louisiana, which is dead center of the State near the coastline. Her name is Mary Sewell Hillier. Her style is very colorful and quite unique, as you can see. So, I thought I'd start by having her do Remi's portrait. I sent a photo and told her a few things about my first girl. Here is the final painting. Pretty cool, huh? I think the size is about 18" x 24" or something like that.

About a month or so ago, I contacted Mary again to ask her about doing Sugar's portrait. As before, I provided her with a picture and gave her a good description of Sugar's personality. She emailed at some point and said she had to "batten down the hatches" in preparation of Hurricane Gustav, so she was delayed in starting Sugar's portrait. For Pete's sake, I told her to get the heck out of dodge and we'd worry about the portrait later. It was very considerate of her to let me know though. I just chuckled, having "been there, done that" on so many occasions I knew in the flurry of hurricane preparations and evacuations, oddly enough, you do try to "tie up loose ends". Once things simmered down a bit and things were back to normal, she commenced to working on the portrait again. Here is Sugar's final painting. I just love it!

Next, I have to get Lucy's done. Knowing her nickname is Lucy(fer), I can't imagine how she'll paint her but I think it'll be interesting to see the final results.

I'll be getting these framed and will mount on one wall in my dining room. I'm quite proud, as you can imagine!