Status of Original Painting – Private Collection

Size: 14 x 9.5  inches

Medium: Watercolour on 300 lb Arches

Description:

This painting features my son Jamieson when he was less than two years of age. I took a series of photos of my two children with various of the What to Expect books, which were essential references for young parents back then. In the first, my newborn daughter Caileigh has What to Expect the First Year propped up in front of her, but she’s asleep as if the expectations proved overwhelming. In the second photo, she’s eagerly reading What to Expect the Toddler Years while her newborn brother is passed out with What to Expect the First Year in front of him. And in the third photo, Caileigh is reading Parenting magazine while Jamieson is enthusiastically reading What to Expect the Toddler Years, as depicted here. From an early age, he already knew how to play along for laughs!

I’ve extracted Jamieson from that reference photo for this painting. This may be the longest interval for me between taking a photo and then using it as reference for a painting…some 26 years or thereabouts.

Why paint this now? It’s for the second edition of the textbook, Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Endocrinology: Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Clinical Management. The first edition featured two paintings I’d created to separate the Mother and Child halves of the book, “Feeling Life” and “Nourishing Life.” The first painting also appeared on the cover. For the second edition, the first two paintings will appear in the Mother half of the book, while “Expectant Toddler” will appear in the Child half of the book along with a painting that I’m currently working on.

Here are the first three paintings side-by-side: