Christmas – Heni's Happy Paintings

Last Christmas I gave my twin sister the first print of my painting Young Mary. I had painted three Mother Mary’s that fall, and this was her favorite. She felt this painting captured Mary’s strong spirit. She must have been strong in her faith to listen to her visions and believe that she was carrying God’s son. In this painting I wanted to capture the look of the Renaissance period paintings with her golden halo and trim. The roses symbolize her loving spirit.

The sun rise was gorgeous this morning while I was driving my daughter to her last day of school prior to winter break. It felt like an early Christmas present. Tomorrow marks the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year here in the Northern hemisphere. I’m ready for the sun to start returning and the new year to begin when I’ll have more time to paint. Wishing all a very light filled holiday season!

On twitter the other day, someone asked the question, “What are some of your earliest Christmas memories?” which got me thinking.

One of my early memories, so early that to me it seems dreamlike when I think about it, was riding the Pink Pig at Riches department store in downtown Atlanta. I must have been 3 years old. My twin sister and I probably rode it with my two older sisters while my parents shopped. The Pink Pig ride was up on a railing that went around the interior of the store, we could look down and see the shoppers below. Afterwards we got to visit with Santa Claus and then onto a red room where we picked out small gifts for our parents. The spring after this experience our family moved to Columbus Ga. Every year at Christmas, my older sisters would tell us that the “real” Santa was at Rich’s in Atlanta, which of course I believed.

A while back I had showing of my art work at the Phoenix and Dragon bookstore in Sandy Springs titled, “When Pigs Fly”. At the opening I was asked why I painted pigs. During that talk I remembered and realized that the Pink Pig memory was probably a big unconscious reason why I had chosen to paint pigs.

The painting above is called “When Pigs Fly” and it reminds me of the magic of this season. Wishing all a very magical holiday season!

Available here.