Grandma's Memories

When JoAnn's mom was alive we would visit her place on the lake. Her china shelf was carefully arranged with various objects she enjoyed. The glass in the doors of the cabinet reflected the room. I had taken a photo of the moon over the lake that we could see through her large picture window, so combined these images to create this painting. There were many challenges in this painting. I was interested in how light and image are affected by the glassware distortions. I also worked hard to create the transparency of the moon on the plate. It's so easy to do in Photoshop, but so hard to paint! I like to do my sketches/designing in Photoshop because it has that handy undo feature. Undo in paint means painting the whole thing over! Another challenge with this painting was that I chose a very smooth and rather small surface of primed pressed wood like Masonite. Every brush stroke is obvious and there is little margin for error, but it allows fantastic detail.