Day 17. Happy Birthday, Mom!

To celebrate this very special day, I painted your favorite cupcake from Kroger. Surprised, Mom?

Happy 90th Birthday – and welcome to your virtual birthday party! (Aren’t you glad I didn’t put 90th in the headline, Mom?)

And look who just joined the party!

As with all parties, it took a lot of planning to make this happen today. There are so many little details – and I just realized I forgot the flowers!

And your gift, the Happy Birthday Cupcake painting, didn’t come easily either with everything that was going on here this week. I hope you like it.

For the first time in years, I had to switch to acrylic paints since it dries quickly (too quickly sometimes), allowing for corrections in an hour, and cleans up easily with water. Besides, the vibrant, dayglow colors of the Krogers cupcake just screamed for these acrylics, which I happened to have on hand (amazingly not dried out after 15 years!).

I started with the Happy Birthday decoration, which worked well with the Liquitex magenta. Along the way, I decided to leave the table white so this painting wouldn’t look too busy. Unlike my typical oil painting sessions, this one was done on the kitchen table with a cup of water close by to keep my brushes from drying out.

For those of you who haven’t met my mother before, in all the excitement I forgot to formally introduce you to Dot, A Mom Who Loves Sports, and the winner of my 2014 Sports Artist Award. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, she is my anchor who still keeps me focused on the big picture and the important things in life.

Dot, we hope you are enjoying the party. It’s time for you to make a wish and blow out the candles.

We love you (even though we don’t say it enough) and wanted to show you how much you are appreciated. Have a wonderful day!