Home of the Brave ...

Print found here.

I remember the first time I read this quote: "This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave"... I got chills & it made me even more proud to be a married to a man in the military.

I painted this 8 years ago while sitting in our Jacksonville, FL kitchen. Brett was about 1 1/2 years old. I spent hours on it, but finished it in 1 day [I believe in 1 sitting, too].  It was one of the 1st things I ever painted that I was truly proud of. Here is the original [size 18x24] which now hangs in our boys' room.

Funny story about this painting: the next morning I couldn't turn my head without a sharp pain shooting all the way down my neck into my shoulder. I called Kyle [who had already left for work at the squadron] because I had no idea what was wrong & I was afraid to lift sweet Brett out of his crib. :) Turns out ... all the intensity from concentration while painting this made me tense up in my shoulders. A mass had formed. Ouch. I got some muscle relaxers & a shot of something in my neck & I was good to go. Lesson learned: a few shoulder rolls while in deep concentration can go a long way. ;)

For the prints, I played around with some different shots, but in the end I had to angle it ever so slightly to fit it all into the same square. So, as I explain in the listing, the canvas pock marks [which I love having in the print to show its authenticity & that it is indeed painted] are present on the right hand side of the print's image, but get smaller as you move left [or get 'washed out' as shown in the shot of the top of the flag.

I plan on hanging the sample that I've cut down to 8x10 in Kyle's office. And yes, for those of you that are wondering, I do plan on someday painting the C-130. It is this plane's fraternal twin, flown by the Air Force [versus this one being the P-3 flown by the Navy]. Kyle flew the P-3 for 4 years while in the Navy & now that he's in the Air National Guard, he flies the C-130. There is a slight friendly rivalry between the 2 branches in case you didn't know. Slight. But we all work together. :)