Home for the Holidays

I don’t know if anyone truly experiences Christmas the way we all picture it. Somehow I think Christmas – like childhood – is a magical blend of reality and imagination. As an artist, Christmas has always supplied me with a wealth of inspiration. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a small town where Christmas still meant caroling and sleigh rides and snowmen. Those childhood Christmas memories seem to blend and intermingle as the years go by, so that when I paint nostalgic recreations of Christmas past, I can never be sure where experiences end and fancy begins!

Home for the Holidays is an example of memory and imagination blending together to create an idyllic vision. Who hasn’t daydreamed about taking a frosty sleigh ride to visit friends for a bit of Christmas Eve cheer? Presents will be exchanged, prayers offered, and perhaps a mug of streaming punch will send you on your way.

By my way, my three year of daughter Merritt is a wonderful model for paintings like this and, in tribute to her efforts, her name adorns the mailbox to the right of the sleigh.