by Liz Lemon Swindle

May 11, 2009

I have had a wonderful day! I have had a steady stream of visitors and some business matters to attend to, but mostly I have been focused and driven!

The painting is truly beautiful and I am so proud of it. I’m grateful to these people who commissioned this work – they have given me an opportunity to grow; both as an artist and for my spirit.

I mostly glazed and softened edges, plus a little work on fabric texture. I love this final time with a painting – I quietly listen to what it needs and the creative process explodes! It’s truly wonderful.

May 12, 2009

I finished the painting today. Tomorrow they’ll take it to Salt Lake to be shot. I’ll have it in the studio tomorrow afternoon and I’ll put the last glaze on it. This glaze is to take away any matte brush strokes.

In a year I will put a varnish on it to seal it. It is believed that an oil takes a year to dry – so technically, that will be the final graze.

I am often asked if I have a hard time giving these paintings up and I would have to say yes and no.

Yes because your heart and soul has been invested in it for months and you become very attached. Every inch has had an experience for me, some tremendous and joyful and some difficult and anxious. This ‘Good Shepherd’ (working title) has a lot of me in it.

No because I usually know where these originals are going and with maybe one or two exceptions, they are being hung with the same spirit I painted them. It’s hard to let these go when they serve only as an investment.

I know where this beautiful painting is going. It will hang in a home where Jesus Christ is the center of their lives. It will bear testimony thousands of times and it will lift and inspire many souls.



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