Uncle Brent's Girls
One wintry Sunday morning early this year my son Brent sent me an old photo of reading to the girls one Christmas when he was home for the holidays. Mom, he wrote, this is one of my favs. You should paint it. The year 2018, thus far, hadn’t been kind to me and I needed a project. I planned to visit Brent in New York later in the spring and thought I could surprise him. The painting was one of the most challenging I had undertaken: not one but three faces! Nevertheless, I was determined and spent the better part of two months painting, wiping and repainting. I had to capture this tender moment in time. Three-year old Quinn was not feeling well, hence the bunny and blanket. Piper was, as characteristic, predictably attentive whenever a book is involved. Uncle Brent, well, can you tell he was happy to be with his beloved nieces?
Precious moments, captured in photos and paintings, are reminders that time is both finite and infinite. We cannot relive them except in our memories and we know how quickly little girls grow and change. I wanted this painting to show the tender relationship among the three. Brent would love to have a family and would make a wonderful father, but for now, he is the incredible “Uncle Brent” to Piper and Quinn. Shared holidays are special and pass much too quickly, and moments like these are frozen in time. I did finish the painting (barely) before my trip to New York. A snowstorm delayed UPS a day, yet, delivery came on the last afternoon of our visit. Brent was both surprised and thrilled.
I paint to (hopefully) make people happy. In this portrait I attempted, in the words of T. S. Eliot, to make time “eternally present”, a timeless moment “at the still point of the turning world” (Burnt Norton, Four Quartets). My heart dances there.
