Back in the beginning of 2005, Karen came to me about her baby girl, Maddie, who passed over the rainbow bridge. I remember painting Maddie like it was yesterday – how she tugged on my heartstrings then, and how compassionate and loving I thought her Momma was to have her portrait done. Over the years, I’ve painted all of Karen’s pets and they have definitely all touched my heart and become an extended furbaby family to me. I think about her and her babies regularly, so it was very sad to hear that Callie had passed away.

Part of me was so torn yesterday when I started contemplating her background color. I wanted to paint her face on a cloud with a sky blue background, like Maddie. But I kept being pulled away from that thought and my mind filled with this gold color, a rich warm gold like sunshine was filling the canvas around her. That’s just how it happened, too.