Last completed portrait

This is my latest completed portrait. Dominik is the brother of Veronika whose portrait I posted earlier. I just shipped his portrait to Washington D.C. and the family shipped Veronika's portrait back to be in a national portrait show. I am working on the other brother's, Nicholas, portrait and hope to post it soon. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with this family.

Warrior's Walk

I wanted to write about this as soon as I came back from the painting presentation on June 12th but I kept waiting to get photos from the ceremony to post. I never got them so I will now tell you about it. Recently, I had the honor of being asked to create an oil painting of Warrior's Walk in Fort Stewart, Georgia. I got an email from a man named Patrick Shado who had gotten my name from a friend of his with the Patriot Gaurd Riders. I got to know the PGR through another project that I am involved with called Art from the Heart. You can read more about Art From the Heart in a previous post. Anyway, I spoke with Patrick, who is an Army veteran and a Marne Rider down in south Georgia, and he told me all about Warrior's Walk and what it means to the families and soldiers affiliated with that unit. He would get choked up many times when he would talk about the monthly ceremonies at Fort Stewart to dedicate trees to the soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice from that unit. The number of trees that are there is a somber reminder of the one's that were lost. In order to get a better idea of what Patrick was talking about, I drove down to Fort Stewart and attended one of the dedication ceremonies in October. I actually rode to the event on the back of a motorcycle along with other PGR and Marne riders. It was very touching and the families of the fallen heroes were clearly distraught but appreciative and were handled with the utmost care. I took many photos from many different areas of the Walk. I then went home and over the next few months decided on the angle and composition of the painting and completed the painting. I presented the painting, along with Patrick, at a special ceremony honoring the fallen soldiers to General Lynch. Lynch had just come back from Iraq with his troops and was truly an honorable man whose love and respect for his guys was so plain to see. I was very humbled and honored to be able to use my talent to give something back to this unit.