Founder, Dr. Hardison

As I mentioned in an earlier post {a year ago} our church had a fire that destroyed the sanctuary and damaged the rest of the building, and now we are down to the last few weeks of re-building.  There is excitement for returning to the home of Tidewater Baptist Temple.

That being said, I've made it my mission to replace the portraits of our past Pastors that were destroyed.  Time is catching up to me and I'm starting my second out of three.  Below is the first portrait.

Dr. Hardison was the founding Pastor of Tidewater Baptist Temple.  He now travels as an Evangelist while remaining a member.  He has been a faithful servant of God and he is greatly loved.

 

Dr. D.M. Hardison

Beverly Gurganus

Oil on Canvas  24"x30"

 

 

 

 

Engagement in Paris

Time has not been my friend lately, and it has been proven by how long it has been since my last post.  I am still here and working on paintings (even if I can't find time to post about them all).  Just to give you an idea of my day... 
   I start my day at 5:15 or 5:30 (depends on whether or not I hit the snooze button) with a work out.  I drop the kids off at school, p/u the baby I watch, and return to school by 12 noon to pick up my kindergartner.  Lunch, nap (for the kids that is), and back to school to pick up my 10th grader.  The rest of the afternoon is homework, dinner, the prep for bed.  If I'm lucky, I can fit some studio time in.  Oh, Thursdays I don't babysit so that is my painting day and my favorite day :)

Enough of that! 

Here is a commissioned painting I recently completed.

 

Untitled

Beverly Gurganus

24x22 Oil on Canvas

 

I was approached by a gentleman (a friend) to paint a picture of the Eifle tower.  He was getting ready to celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary and wanted to give it to his wife.  The Eifle Tower is a favorite of hers not only because it is beautiful but also, her husband proposed to her at the base of the tower.  I had never painted something like this before and was a bit nervous because I really wanted it to be special for them.  He gave me a photo and I got to work.  Whether the painting is technically successful could be debated, but the couple was very pleased, and that was my ultimate goal. 

"From Ashes Comes Life"

Earlier this year I wrote a post about our church that caught fire and that the sanctuary was destroyed along with everything inside.  Our Pastor's son (Andrew) rummaged through the ashes and found charcoal remnants of our church piano.

The bag containing burnt pieces of our church piano:

Andrew approached me during Art Class (he was one of my students) asking what the possibilities were for using the charcoal pieces of piano to draw the piano.  I told him that I would play around with it.

I never could find out the exact model of our piano so I decided a drawing of piano keys would work. 
Here is the final drawing:

"From Ashes Comes Life"

Beverly Gurganus

Charcoal pencil and Burnt wood from Piano

The burnt wood worked well with lighter values, but was not successful with darker values.  I chose to use my charcoal pencil for the darker values.

Irises

Spring, that time of year when the outside no longer looks cold and uninviting, but rather full of life with a color palette of warm greens, yellows, purples, blues, and reds.  The songs sung by birds and the smell of wonderful fragrance fills the air.  I love this season so much that the sneezing, itchy eyes, and headaches from the pollen doesn't even get me down.

One of my favorite things about Spring is the blooming Irises growing in my front yard (oh, how I wish they would bloom spring and summer  *sigh).  Every year I take pictures in hopes that I will one day paint these flowers.

I woke up one Monday morning and thought..."Why not take my easel outside and spend this beautiful day painting."  So that is what I did, I painted my Irises.

                                                  "Irises"  11x14 Acrylic on Canvas   2012

Sculpting with Chocolate

It was that time again...my daughter's birthday.  Each year I allow her to request the type of cake she wants for her birthday.  This year she chose something simple {not} a horse for the top of the cake.  She has specifics...the horse had to be black and white.

I had already tried sculpting with gum paste, but that was not successful.  On my trip to the cake store, one of the ladies told me of modeling chocolate.  I mixed up the recipe and began sculpting...here is the horse that took three hours to sculpt.

I was very happy with the horse and most importantly, Christina was happy.  Next, was to design the rest of the cake to fit her "cowgirl" theme.  Here is the finished cake.

...and the happy 5 year old

Sunny, White Standard Poodle

Thanks to Teresa for allowing me to do an example of her boy, Chevy, I have now received my first commission {a month ago}.  Teresa has been wonderful sharing the Scratch board of Chevy with others and passing out my business cards...she is awesome!

"Sunny"

14x11 Scratch board

Sunny is a beautiful white standard poodle and he was fun and challenging to do b/c of his all white coloring. I was able to meet Sunny when delivering this piece to his Mommy and he is just as beautiful in person as he was in his photo.  He is very smart and enjoyed playing ball with my  4 year old 5year old daughter.  I also met his new 10 wk old brother, Happy, who is adorable and all black {I will have to practice by doing a scratching of my all black Newfie so that I'll be ready to do Happy}.

"Reilly"

8x10 Scratch board

Above is a Scratching of my dog pug, Reilly.