In Memory of Jean Lowry

I had received a call from Ernie Lowry. He wife had recently passed away and he wanted a portrait to be done in her memory.

He had a three by five photograph, that was taken of them many years ago, that he had treasured.

Although he had many photographs of her, this particular photo meant much more to him. 

Before he knew about Your Precious Portraits, he paid to have the section of the photograph of his wife enlarged as you see here and framed. But with older photos you can only enlarge so much before you loose detail.

The photo was cropped, retouched, enlarged to 8" X 10", matted and framed.  He paid $400 for the work done to create the 8" X 10" photo. Needless to say he was very disappointed. 

So from an image no larger than half the size of three by five photo, Norm went to work. 

For the same investment, Mr Lowry got a painting! 

For us we got to meet with a wonderful man who loves his wife and misses her dearly. We got to hear his story about the love his wife and the wonderful woman she was.

Thank you Ernie, for telling your story and giving us the opportunity to do this painting.

For a closer look of the painting click here.

Photo Diary of the Festival

This past week was a hot one! 

I took off a week from work to work all the harder to help Norman get ready for the Festival of the Arts at St. John's Medical Center. This was Friday morning the first day of the show. 

Our tents had to be up and ready by 9:30.

Norm is EXHAUSTED! 

We started Thursday afternoon and thought we would stroke out in the heat and be found in the goose poop by the pond.

Our tent is now complete and it is looking like rain. Here is the first peek inside.

Norm hinged 3 doors together and painted them with 3 shades of light green. The doors added more display space in our tent. 

I also displayed some prints of his photography in my grandmother's old wicker suitcase.

More matted prints of Norm's work are displayed in the opposite corner.  As the day progressed and the skies cleared I moved them out by the front.  

The plastic white lattice that we used for the sides of the tent worked well for hanging more paintings. 

It gave the tent a gazebo feeling.

So here is our tent and we are finally ready and waiting for our first customer.

This can't be our first customer?!?

The geese kept us company and searched for droppings of kettle corn from the passers by. 

But, thank God, our first customers started to arrive. 

My turn to guard the fort. 

I kept to the shade when the sun came out.  Unfortunately our tent was in the sun unlike the lucky ones that had shelter under the trees. 

Sun block was a must!

I think this was our youngest customer.  What a cutie!

 This is a shot of the many tents under the trees that lined the walking path on the St. John's Medical Campus.

At Sunday's close the artisans packed up and left the trails for our geese companions.

All in all, the festival turned out well. The sun came out and it cooled down enough that many people came out to visit.

We met many wonderful people.

I hope to be telling their stories through Norm's future illustrations. 

Creating our Banner for the Festival of the Arts

It suddenly dawned on me while in this frenzy of getting work printed, matted and framed for our show this weekend, that we had no identity for our little white tent in the sea of many white tents that wind around the walking trails on the St John's medical campus.

I had spotted a banner hanger a the local Pat Catan's and felt I could adapt it to my purpose. The next step would be designing the banner. Since we can print on canvas that solved my first problem.

Designing it to fit our logo and be seen was another. The hanger is not particularly wide so as you can see I designed one for a vertical look.

The banner measures 14" X 36"

I designed it so it can be viewed from both sides.

I pray this will do the trick. Meanwhile Norm is getting our work ready for the show. Our studio is only half completed. Folding doors for the tent to hang paintings on tower in my living room accompanied by a large folding table where I am matting prints.

Somehow this does not feel like vacation. All the same I am excited.

Summer Memories

There is a saying that summer is half over after the 4th. I always sigh when I hear that. I have so many fond memories of summer. Norman painted the above picture from a photo he snapped while we were up in Lakeside, Ohio capturing the quaintness of a long lazy small town summer. I asked him to do a painting of it so I can hold on to summer even in the cold Cleveland winters.

The old wicker chair reminds me of my grandmother, another warm memory in of itself. I can almost hear the sounds of summer from this painting: kids playing, birds chirping, lawnmowers with their distant hum. Oh how I love summer. Thanks Norman for capturing a bit of it for me.

To see Norman's original photo click here: original photo and take a tour through Norm's photo gallery.