This is a commissioned piece that I did for a family in Montana. They wanted their children, Arabian, dog, cat and barn in the painting. This was quite a task. I took several rolls of film and started cutting. Back then I would literally cut up the pictures and make a collage of sorts to base my drawing on. The mother of these children is a great song writer.

I come from a family of seven. We have always drawn names for Christmas. I painted this painting for my brother one year that I had his name and we didn’t have any money. There were several really neat drawings that came out of this as well. Barry and Lori actually bought one of them and had it framed as well.

Harold Hopkinson gave me some suggestions and much encouragement when I took this painting to his studio. He was a great artist and always so willing to share what he could with others. I grew up wanting to be an artist like him. He was a great man.

Dr. Welch and his wife (I like to name drop when at all possible) have since commissioned other pieces and have bought some of my landscapes. I will be painting a “Called to Serve” portrait of their oldest son who is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the next year or so.

This piece was commissioned by Dr. Chris Winterholler and his wife Dr. Patrice Winterholler. They flew me to Saint George to meet them in Zion National Park where they were having a family reunion. I took my daughter Starlee who wasn’t even one yet with me. She cried most of the time but they were very patient and helpful. I was tickled with how this turned out. Unfortunately I only have one photo of this painting and the colors are not quite right.

I now take several photos of my finished pieces. There are many of my paintings out there that I don’t have record of. I went to this ladies house one time to with my niece and saw a piece that looked like my stuff. I went and checked the signature and it was one of mine. I hadn’t even remembered doing it.

This was a painting commissioned by a couple in Oregon. Actually the mom wanted it done so bad that she cleaned my house every week until it was paid off. It was a challenge working with children so young but the older sister was very good about following my instructions and just staying close to her little brother.

When we had the final viewing the mom said… “it looks like there is bird poop on the top of his head”. Needless to say I fixed that. Here again I only have this photo and the colors are washed out.

This is a commissioned piece where we went to this fabulous garden to take the reference photos. There were butterflies everywhere. The middle boy is trying to catch them in the painting. There are over 10 butterflies in this piece. When this painting was delivered to the family the youngest son said “where did you get the color for my hair?”