Friday, September 19, 2008

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Maud lived in the beautiful Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. I loved the crocheted sweater vest I found her in from an old photo. I want one just like it!
Although her Anne of Green Gables books, and other books about young women, are famous the world over, at the time she wrote them, she had to face rejection. She is proof positive that persistence pays off.

And So We Endure

These are a little different than most of my paintings, because, well, they're not paintings at all. I was asked to do three sketches this time, and they overlapped them onto color photographs. Michelangelo here (as modeled by our good friend Kent, but with much more hair) was set in front of the spacious ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
This is Samuel Whittemore. He joined the Revolutionary War when he was 80 years old and fought against the invading British army, and he lived through it and became a captain! He was the oldest revolutionary soldier. Brian's dad, who just turned 81, was the perfect choice for my model, especially since I saw him one Sunday at his granddaughter's mission farewell to take his picture. The next week his image was on TV, and we were at his grandson's mission farewell and the whole family got to see him as a revolutionary soldier!
Although I didn't use any of my friends or family as a model for Marie Curie, she was still exciting to draw. Her husband died suddenly in a chemistry experiment gone bad, but she stuck with the research they had done together and was awarded the Nobel Prize.