She has talent

My sister, Mary, has some serious talent. She struggled through school. She chose not to attend college like her older sisters. But when she took her first real art class in high school, we knew she had a raw talent that the rest of us could not touch.

The first time Mary put paint to paper in high school, it was beautiful. And every time she has done it since has been amazing.

She's had no formal training other than her few small school art classes several years ago. But she's good.

I love Mary's paintings. Here are some that I have in my house. This doesn't even touch the other things she's painted for my mom, other sister, grandmother and other people. Her specialty and passion is for ocean/water scenes, but I think she could paint anything she put her heart to.

Mary made this painting for me while she was in high school art. It was right about the time that she was finding out her passion for ocean scenes. I love dolphins, so she added one in the water just for me. I still haven't framed it, but it's always in a prominent place in my home. I like to look at it often.

The photo I took of this second painting doesn't even begin to do the photo justice. It's framed (with glass and I couldn't get a good picture without a glare) and hangs in my kitchen.

I rescued this painting from the trash. Just before graduating Mary was helping clean out all her art projects from school. She was decided which ones to keep and which to just get rid of. There were so many. This one was in her throw away pile. I feel in love with it instantly. She never liked it much, but it's my favorite. There's just something about the colors that I love.

This painting is what Mary created for me for Christmas. She asked what kind of painting I'd like, since she was making one for everyone. I didn't have any ideas, so I told her to try to do something similar to the painting you see above. And she does awesome sunsets, so this is what she came up with. It sits on my piano, and I like seeing it when I walk by it all the time.

This painting is one that Mary recently gave me. She saw the idea somewhere about painting an above/under water scene. When she was finished, she knew it was perfect for me. So she gave it to me a few weeks ago. I'm very proud of it, and I wish the photos could capture the image better. This one sits in my bathroom (I had reservations about leaving it in there, but she thought it would go best there) behind the toilet (not much other wall space). The colors on this are superb.

I wish I had half of the talent that my sister has.