Other than enjoying the process and just loving to paint I haven’t given much thought to this question until I started working on a few recent portraits. As I worked on each one I noticed how much love was in my heart for the people I was painting. Each one giving me a warm feeling as I worked to try and capture their likeness and the details of the moment.

Perhaps it is because I am no longer trying to figure out what and how the techniques are achieved and can now relax more and enjoy the experience of painting someone I love. Each one is a special person to me and some capture a moment in time that tells a story.

And then I started working on a painting of my beautiful grand-daughter and was moved to tears by what a beautiful young woman she is becoming and how privileged I felt to be her grandmother.

So what I am saying is have we ever talked about what the artist experiences as they paint a particularly beautiful scene or memory? Is that why some paintings touch our hearts more than others? Is it because we feel the emotion of the artist in their work?

What makes your heart sing? Where do you find beauty? More than beauty where do you find yourself staring at something with a humbleness and awe? Is it found in the delicateness of a flower or the power of the ocean? Do you find it in the face of a child or the stillness of the night? Where do you find it? Look for it. Then paint it again and again just for the sheer joy of it. Feel life.

Cheri LaVelle