Mary in the Dahlia Field

This is a watercolor painted for my mother-in-law of her beautiful youngest daughter, Mary.  I finished it a few days ago.  I love working in watercolors.  Layering colors can be sort of an endless process so it's hard to know when to stop.  I sort of like the fading to one layer of paint on the right bottom sides.  Of course now I'm thinking of working on portraits of the nieces Madison, Breanna and Isla.

Restoring a Sacred Heart of Jesus Statue

This is a before and after photo of the work.  I'll include some process pictures too. :)

When I began I wasn't sure what the statue was made of so I lightly sanded off the old paint with a soft sanding block.  When I realized it was metal it was an easier process of using steel wool in the deep folds and a dremel with a wire brush on the rest of the surface.  

When I removed the old paint I wiped away the paint dust and brought it inside to begin priming the statue with white gesso paint.

Next I began blocking in colors.  This step is important because you can't see the true colors next to white paint.  

Then I worked on the face details next.

Then I started to detail the rest of the statue.  I painted the darks in the folds of the fabric and used a sponge with a lighter color to pullout the highlights.  Then I used a pearl on the natural white cloth and a antique gold on the red cloth.  The trim work was done with a bronze paint instead of gold leaf.  And then I put a few coats of exterior varnish on it to protect it from the elements.  

I had a lot of fun working on this project.  I hope I get the opportunity to do more work like this. :)