Painting: I am a Child of God

/ Tracy M

During General Conference (grand poobah of all Mormon meetings, twice a year) this weekend, I worked on a painting a friend of mine asked me to do. It’s part of getting back in the swing of things again, (and gearing up to to tackle the cats- which is next!) and I thought it would be fun to document the process. This a similar painting of one I did for my ward a while back, so it didn’t require a lot of brain power, and I was able to paint while I listened to the conference on my laptop.

The kids were really excited to see me drag out my painting stuff- and I had to lay down the law on what they could touch and what was all mamas. I have tried not to draw or paint in front of them because then they want me to draw everything for them and I really want them to run with their own creativity.

I paint on masonite with acrylics. Any acrylic is fine with me- I’m not a snob. Unless we’re talking watercolors, then I’m kind of a snob, and prefer Doctor Martines English liquid watercolors. But I digress… For my palettes, I use kitchen plates. Acrylic dries and peels off, and I have dozens of them. Convenient and easy!

I begin by sketching out the general layout, and blocking in the large fields of color. You can see the beginnings of a tree trunk under the field of white and cream.

I paint rough and kind of freeform, not really needing everything to be layed out first. I mix most of my colors on the brush and on the painting surface, because I like the texture it gives me. Here’s an example of building the texture on the board. The yellow is going to be the foliage on a tree.

More examples of texture laid down on the surface, as the forms start to emerge.

Form taken and materialized…

Time for some lettering. I do all my lettering on painting freehand, by hand, and the imperfectness of it is part of what I love. I am a typography geek, and love me some well formed letters, I have to admit…

And then, voila- all done. That’s what I did during Conference.

48 thoughts on “Painting: I am a Child of God”

  1. Not only do I really love this painting (it reminds me of another of yours I’ve seen before, I think), I love how you showed the process.

  4. Love it. Still. I am the proud owner of the first one of these – and may I say, it makes me happy every time I look at it.

    Still – glad you used the right psalm this time. 🙂 Mine says 87:6, which reads The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah. This also makes me happy, because it makes me laugh, and when you’ve done a ton of these, the one with the “wrong” psalm will be worth so much more. 🙂

  5. Wow – that is beautiful! Heading to your Etsy site now, to see if you offer something similar, and to see if I can afford one… 🙂

  9. Aileen, I have an obligation to finish a painting of my cousins cats, and once that’s done, I’m opening up to commissions again.

  13. I SO hope you will consider selling prints of your paintings like this. I’m sure I could never afford an original, but maybe a print?

  17. Please do prints! I just LOVE this! You are one talented super mom! I’m in awe of everything you are able to accomplish. You rock!

  19. You painted this? During conference? Wow woman! You have some serious talent! I couldn’t even drag my sorry behind off the couch to do the dishes. I would love to put my name on a waiting list for a painting 🙂

  21. I’ve looked into prints. I am trying to have my friend Lisa do some as well. Call me. I have researched the whole process. There are places here that do the high res photo and houngan get the prints done in china. We should be calling mormon- y stores to see if they want to sell them. I will invest, you bring the talent. Please put me at the top of the list for commissions. ( we are getting sealed in a few months– so I have some ideas).

  23. Um, I want one. Seriously. Not kidding at all. My husband saw it and said, “I would buy that. Right now.” Your talent amazes me. And I really want one of those paintings ….

  29. I gradually quit getting out the paints when my kids were young because it was too frustrating. Worst mistake I ever made. I lost whole decades that way, and there’s no catching up. And worst of all, they all forgot that I (used to) paint.
    I can’t think of anything more important for you to have done this weekend. Particularly since you already had big blocks of (conference) time allocated.
    And genius to involve the young photographer.

  34. Pingback: Acrylics Demonstration by Sheila | Headlandsartgroup's Blog

  35. I fully expect to see this in Deseret Book and Seagull by the end of the year! Of course, I’ll be buying one! I love this painting, Tracy — you are amazing.

  37. Just had to echo everyone else. AMAZING! I loved seeing this artistic process and the results.

  38. I’ll shoot Leslie an email. I’m sure she’ll have lots of ways to help.

    And you do know that this stuff looks like witchcraft to me, right? I have no idea how you do it.

  40. Inconceivable!!

    I will see if I can talk with someone in Nauvoo about selling your work, if you’d like me to do that.

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