"Happy Days" (oil on stretched canvas; 18" x 18") nfs

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I worked on this painting of my daughter, at the age of nine, on and off for several years; I finally feel satisfied.  The reference photo was taken during my family's vacation in northern California.  At Glass Beach, we scavenged the beach for pretty sea glasses as the sun set and the place became bathed in the golden light.

Whenever I look at this painting, my heart is filled with tenderness.  She is now a high-school senior, about to go off to college.  In my mind's eye, she is always about this big, or even younger; she is full of joy and innocence, ready to sit on my lap for a big hug.  These were the happiest days of my life.

"Budding Artist" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") nfs

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Pablo Picasso once said: "Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."  I can't agree more.  My daughter used to love art.  The painting shows when she was not quite three and a half years of age.  She was a fearless abstract expressionist!  She, as a grade schooler, went to an after-school art program for several years, winning awards and all.

Then she grew up and decided that art was not her thing.  These days she doesn't go anywhere near paints and brushes.  She is more likely to read books, play the flute, or solve tough math questions with a pencil in hand.

I painted "Budding Artist" on New Year's Day as a New Year's Resolution.  I want to live and paint fearlessly this year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"My Angel" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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While going through my old print photo albums, I found a darling picture of my old friend with her daughter.  When my daughter was a preschooler, I used to host many play dates and play groups--I was indeed a queen of play dates!  I miss my old friends and their kids.  Some moved away; I lost contact with others, all busy with life and work.

On one of my play groups, four moms and six children had a glorious time, dining on homemade dishes, playing outside, then playing dress ups and games inside.  Megan, in my daughter's pink angel costume, got worn out with too much fun and crawled to her mommy's arms.  I was fortunate to catch such a tender moment with my camera.  When I was painting "My Angel", I felt like Mary Cassatt, a famous 19th-century American artist who painted many intimate paintings of mother and child.

By the way, I've decided to offer custom portraits of children.  I am excited!  If you are interested in getting your children's or grandchildren's portraits, or your own mother-and-child double portrait, please check out my Etsy shop.  Thanks!

"Kendell and Tomp" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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"Kendell and Tomp" is for Missy.  She commissioned the painting for her father-in-law, who misses Tomp, a very large golden retriever.  Tomp, even at 165 pounds, thought he was a small lap dog, so he would sit on Missy's, or any visitor's lap!

Missy's father-in-law had health issues for the past few years.  Whenever he was hospitalized, she and her children would take care of Tomp.  They would take him for a ride.  He expected to be taken to the drive-through donut shop for a blueberry donut.

Tomp had huge feet and a huge head with more slanted eyes than usual, so he looked like smiling with his whole face at times.  Among several pictures Missy sent me, one particular photo with a rosy-cheeked girl caught my eye.  Kendell was holding his face to accentuate his happy look!  They say that a dog is a man's best friend.  That may be so, but dogs are also children's best friends.  Who doesn't have fond memories of dogs one had as a child?

By the way, it is not too late to order pet portraits for Christmas.  Please send your pet's pictures to kimstenbergart@gmail.com.  A separate page on my blog, "Pet Portrait Orders", will answer all the questions you may have about ordering a pet portrait.  Thanks!

"Young Mexican Dancer" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

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During the annual Halloween parades of my daughter's high school marching band, I've noticed a group of kids dressed up in colorful traditional costumes.  I thought they were enthusiastic audience, as quite a few local residents showed up in costumes.  No, they were a troupe who were to perform Mexican dances as part of the parade entertainments.  Awesome!

I sat in front of the crowd to enjoy the boys' and girls' dance routines, when one girl caught my eye.  Her poised beauty at her young age (she was probably around 10) was mesmerizing.  I had to paint her.  What do you think of my effort?

By the way, I've decided to offer custom portraits of children.  I am excited!  If you are interested in getting your children's or grandchildren's portraits done for the holiday, please check out my Etsy listing.  Thanks!

"Kids" (watercolor on Strathmore Aquarius paper; 14" x 20") sold

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Can you feel the bright sun and warmth of the day, when I saw the scene at a petting zoo in Oregon?  I will tell you how I created the glow.  You first treat the Strathmore Aquarius paper with gloss medium, which makes it slick and nonabsorbent. (Aquarius is the part-synthetic paper which, although light-weight, doesn't buckle when wet.)  Paints puddle and float; so let them mix on their own and dry naturally.

The beauty of the technique is that paints can be easily lifted to reveal the glowing, pure white of the paper.  But painting on such a treated surface is also tricky, because you can inadvertently lift the previous layer while glazing--use a light touch!

I like to use granular paints like French Ultramarine and Holbein's Mineral Violet; you can see the effect of granulation clearly in the background.  After it dried completely overnight, I lifted the sun-struck areas and painted the boy who is feeding a pony and three goats.

"Kids" was published in How Did You Paint That?: 100 Ways to Paint People and Figures in 2003.  It also won an honorable mention in The Art League show in 2003 and an honorable mention in the Potomac Valley Watercolorists Invitational Show in 2004.

"Golden Girl" (oil on canvas; 18" x 18") nfs

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Some paintings I do to sell; others for entering juried shows.  And there are paintings just for myself.  "Golden Girl" belongs to the last category.  The girl who is holding something in her right hand is my daughter when she was ten.  She had just found a piece of sea glass and was showing it off.  We were at Glass Beach in northern California.  Yes, Glass Beach--I didn't make it up.  Apparently, there used to be a bottling factory nearby and lots of broken glass made into the beach, hence the name.  The time of the day was obviously the sunset.

Reference photo

I had this girl when I was almost 40.  She was my dream child come true--healthy, happy, affectionate, and bright.  She just became a teenager this summer, and well....  She has changed quite a bit since I took the picture above.  Although I wouldn't change anything about her for the world, I still miss her when she could sit on my lap, be a flower girl, and pose for the camera gladly.  I miss those days. 


So I painted "Golden Girl" to remember my daughter at the age of ten, just as I painted her when she was a preschooler.  She was about three when she posed for a photo in a rose garden in Portland, Oregon. Of all the beauties I saw that day, she was the prettiest in my eye.

"Pretty in Pink" (watercolor, 17" x 12") nfs

I will probably do more portraits of my daughter, perhaps as a young lady, definitely as a bride, and hopefully as a new mother with her baby.  I am thankful for my family and my ability to immortalize their likeness in paintings.