My sister left behind a note, and on that note she shared what she wanted her kids be like as they grew up, and she summed it up in these words:
"Be sweet and gentle, Be strong and brave." ~ Paige L. Cahoon.
My brother in law wanted to have this quote to hang in his daughter's room as a reminder of the kind of person Paige wanted her daughter to be.
This is an 18x24 size canvas and I wanted to try something that I have never tried before... I have done paintings with 3D elements before, but never with this many elements. On the background it is actually written over and over again the words "sweet, gentle, strong, brave" and a giant "Esme" overlapping all of those words. I thought that was the perfect foundation for such a special artpiece.
This is just the bottom corner section of the painting and it is also one of my favorite parts. I love that the word "brave" is just off-center of Paige's name, because that is the ultimate description of who Paige was.
And this is a closer look at some of the detail that went into the "Be" portion of the painting.
Overall, this has been one of my favorite paintings to do simply because it has so much meaning behind it. For those of you who don't know, my sister Paige died this past December to breast cancer, but I find new ways to remember her every day... and this painting is one of them.
This simple statement says so much about who Paige was and it is a great way to try and teach her daughter, Esme, how she can be like her mom.