Our New Mantle Artwork

Well, I hope everyone had a great holiday season!  Ours was really nice-lots of family time and relaxation time, which was really appreciated by us all.  Not to mention some really nice gifts (can you say Anthropologie gift certificates???).  Obviously, the gift certificates were for me, but let me introduce you to one of my gifts to my husband. 

A new piece of artwork for over our mantle featuring silhouettes of the three kids!

Previously, this is what hung in the space.  I did this piece a couple years ago to represent our family of four.  Well, obviously, we are no longer a family of four, and I've been wanting to update it for a while. 

I took this photo a few months ago on a hotel balcony.  I love how each child is represented, and how each pose really shows their personalities.  Riley is the head of the pack, standing up, showing the others what to do, Noah is trying to keep up with Riley, and Avery is right in there with them, not afraid at all.

So I made a stencil of their images, and created a piece of artwork around it.  On each child, I wrote a single word describing them.  Riley: eager, Noah: sensitive, Avery: sweet.

I had a great time just "playing" with the paint around the focal images, using colors and shapes that just felt "right" to me.   I really need to do more larger pieces, because it's just so much more fun to paint this way!

I have to say that I think I love the piece more than my husband does, but that's okay- it really was a gift to myself anyway (wink, wink!).  He just gets the pleasure of enjoying it, too!