908 Fruitful Yield

This set up was one day's picking of tomatoes from my rooftop garden.  I enjoyed painting them almost as much as I enjoyed eating them.  Nothing fancy, just a tomato fresh from the vine with salt.  A tomato sandwich on pita if I'm really hungry. 

837 Shining Light

The Campion home was filled with warmth and joy at Christmas and Chanukah.  We had a house full of family--many from a warm climate who loved the cold (go figure) and frolicking in the snow.  We were all bundled up to endure snowball fights, building forts, and the highlight-- snow tubing.  Food and drink were plentiful, and laughter filled the air.  Santa visited and left many gifts for the children after filling his belly with cookies and milk.  We are all so fortunate to have so many blessings.

Painting over the last few weeks was at a minimum, but I was too busy to make it a priority.  I was a little worried that the dreaded painter's block would slip in, but thankfully it didn't.  A giant antique door knob painting called out from the easel, and a beautiful amaryllis gift from a friend is blooming and stirring potential painting ideas.

But at this time yesterday and today, I felt compelled to paint another refugee child pictured on ANERA'S "#Shine Your Light" year-end fundraising campaign (www.ANERA.com) as part of The Innocents Project.  This little girl stole my heart with her big brown eyes and bowed lips.  This will make my 10th portrait in this series,  and I will continue painting until I have a body of work to display and raise awareness (and funds) for the refugee children in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) has a great track record for providing education, shoes, warm clothes, medical supplies, improved water systems, and whatever else is needed to give refugees some dignity and the tools needed to make a better future.  It is very cold in that part of the world, perhaps you didn't know that, and heat is not plentiful even in regular homes, let alone in tents and makeshift cement structures. Imagine sleeping in 40 degrees without heat!  I hope you will check out ANERA's web sight and their Facebook page.  Their focus is on providing better lives for the refugees, NOT politics, so I hope that will further encourage you to read about their good work and to consider a donation.

I would like to express my gratitude to you for following my work and for all your comments, suggestions and encouragement.  I am grateful for the two galleries who represent me, Edgewood Orchard Gallery in Door County, Wisconsin, and The Leigh Gallery in Chicago.  I wish you all good things for 2017--good health, happiness, a heart full of love, and whatever prosperity means to you.

"837 Shining Light"
acrylic - 12x12 in

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/837-shining-light/542711

I would like to expand the reach of my blog so please pass it on to someone who may enjoy it.
www.dianecampion.blogspot.com

794 Attention Getter

I have so much to report today.  But first, I'd like to tell you about this painting.

As you may know, I am hoping to raise awareness (and money!) for the beautiful children who are so deserving of a better life than what they have as refugees in Lebanon and Palestine.  With the generous assistance of ANERA (American Near East Refugee Assistance) in Washington, DC, I am able to paint the portraits of some of the children in what I am calling "The Innocents Project."  This young man captured my heart with his smile and spunk, as he made his way into several of their photos.  In this case, he is smiling because he has received a gift.  Unlike most gifts children his age would receive----- a new Star Wars toy or sporting good, it is a supply of lice kits for the people in his tent camp in Bekaa in eastern Lebanon.

I would like to refer you to an article that really touched me, written by Niki Erickson,  ANERA's manager of operations in Washington on December 30, 2015 entitled "Syrian Refugees:  The Children Deserve Better."  http://www.anera.org/stories/syrian-refugees-the-children-deserve-better/
I had not read this article until today as I was preparing to write this message, but it is very timely that I did.

In her article, Ms. Erickson wrote that as she arrived at this refugee camp, the children swarmed around her, all wanting to hold her hand.  One little boy "with several fresh scars and a smile on his face was tossing rocks at my back.  It wasn't out of anger or hatred, but rather out of desperation to be noticed."  I am going to take a guess that this painting is of that young boy.  As I look closely at his photo,  I DO see scars.  I am pretty sure the scars on the outside are nothing compared to the experiences of being a child living in a refugee camp.

In other news, it has been three years today since I painted my first painting for Daily Paintworks.  On my first day, deciding what to paint, painting it, naming it,  photographing it, posting to the blog, then to Daily Paintworks took me literally from morning till night.  I remember thinking, "this has to get better."  Indeed it did.  I learned to do all of the above much faster.  In those three years, I have painted almost 800 daily paintings in addition to many large paintings.  It's not 1096 like some Daily Painters who never miss a day, but I am very proud of it.  I painted nearly every day during those three years, perhaps not finishing a small painting, but working on a larger painting.  It has been a joy.

I have cut down on the small paintings and I have decided my time is better spent painting large(r).  Many of those small paintings became studies for large paintings or to find my "voice," style, favorite color palette or technique.

As I have said repeatedly, technology is either your best friend or your worst enemy.  I recently learned the hard way that my Mac-created web site went kaput with the installation of my Mac's updated operating system, El Capitan.   I must now rebuild.  Ugh.  (Enter procrastination)

So to all of you who have taken the time to comment on my paintings or to share my blog or Facebook page, and certainly to those who have purchased a little piece of "me" via my work, I sincerely thank you for your kindness.  I love this "job" and hardly call it work. 

"794 Attention Getter"
acrylic - 12x12 in
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/794-attention-getter/471428

dianecampion.blogspot.com

785 Worried

 

As this little girl sat on the bench to rest at her soccer game, she appeared to be worried about something, and I couldn't help but snap a photo of her.

"785 Worried"
acrylic - 8.5x11 in

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/785-worried/462529

dianecampion.blogspot.com

695 Grandma Comes to Visit

I have been away from home for several days with my Art Lady friends.  We visited New Mexico for the third time to plein air paint, and it was a glorious nine days of friendship and painting.  We stayed at the Hacienda del Sol in Taos, New Mexico, and traveled around to various venues.  Our trips are always filled with education, laughter, painting and instruction.

On our first full day, we visited the Two Graces Gallery in Taos, when the owner, Robert, gave us such valuable insight into kachinas, and set up a display of kachinas for us to sketch and photograph. Our assignment for the day was to paint a kachina, and this is the one I chose. I thought it may have been a warrior, but today I called and spoke with Robert who told me that this kachina is an ogre, and get this, a Grandmother.

Legend is that she comes to visit in winter and asks for food.  If you don't have any to offer you, she will give you another chance.  She will visit you again, and if you don't have food, she will eat the children.  The idea is motive to get children to help around the house.

Any way you look at it, I enjoyed painting this kachina, which I never would have attempted.  In the next few days, I will post my New Mexico paintings and hopefully, you will enjoy them.