Liberty's Lament

The Lord gave me this vision of Liberty in travail over this baby a few years ago, but I did not have all the elements of it in my understanding until just recently. I believed the Lord was saying I needed to paint it now. As I began to do my preliminary sketches, some new understanding dropped into my spirit. I knew Liberty was supposed to be in a city with the skyline behind her, but for about a year I had assumed it was to be New York. As I was sketching on that first day, I was listening to Lou Engle on a CD explaining why he was bringing THE CALL to Detroit on 11/11/11. I listened to the horrifying statistics on the number of black babies who are killed by abortion each year, and suddenly I knew Detroit was supposed to be in the background! And I then understood that Liberty held a tiny Black baby in her arms! Liberty is in deep travail, crying out for our American children's freedom - their freedom to LIVE - beginning in Detroit!

As Lou spoke, he declared that God is raising up a new breed of Nazarite Men: Black men from Detroit and from Michigan who would be consecrated to the Lord. These men will contend in prayer for the pre-born children in our land. They will become the force that will turn the tide of Abortion in America.

This swiftly rising wave of targeted murder is cresting today. It is so much more sweeping the the tsunami in Japan. Our precious tiny Americans are being washed away in a silent genocide, ...and so few cry out.

With this painting, I'm crying out.

Have Mercy, Lord!

May we work together to end Abortion in America!

To purchase this print, click on this link: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jenniferoakley.html

Great Smokey Mountains in the Spring

In this painting, I worked a little smaller (a half sheet of 300 lb. paper) and yet, I still managed to spend almost as much time on it as on my full sheet paintings. The level of detail was the issue again, and I just finally decided to celebrate that in this painting. It is the thing that draws me to an image, and I love to develop the contrasting textures and colors as well as I can. For me, that just requires the descriptions be done in great detail. So I am coming to terms with my Style! These things I mention are the reason why I paint. So, I am determined now to put the pressure to speed up my process on notice.

Rocky Rapids

I finished the fourth in this series from my Fall photo shoot in the Cherokee National Forest. This one was gruelling! I kept getting lost in the rocks in the foreground and it was a stop and start production as I worked on a couple of portrait comissions in the process. It seemed to take forever.

Did you notice the rope swing hanging from the tree in the center of the painting? The kids have a great time here in the warm weather, launching into the deep pool from the rocky ledges to the right. On the left side you can see the grassy area, which is a camp site that many of my friends here in Tennessee have enjoyed for years. They call this place the "Submarine Bridge" at the head of the Citico Creek. I was standing on the bridge when I took this picture.

Tommi & Marco

This comission was so much fun to paint! I love horses, and so I jumped right into this one with relish. I added some different trees to the background for interest, since the original photo I was working from had trees that were all the same - just foilage and no trunks or variety.

Summer's Childhood

What a beautiful little girl to paint, with her remarkable coloring!

Contrast is the key to this painting - and the dark treeline sets a foundation to make her skin tones glow and helps her hair reflect the light of the sunshine. Sharp edges vs soft edges - figuring out where to make the most of each is the big challenge here.

Night Mission Briefing

I just finished this painting this morning. I decided to take the advice of a friend who wanted to see a painting of one of my boys in uniform. I had always been intrigued with this image, with all of the anticipation of the mission: vehicles running, taillights glowing, and exhaust in the headlights. I love the challenge of painting textures, and capturing the mood of the moment. Granted, this is a heavy moment, and it was a bit disconcerting to be painting that knife that my son wears so confidently on his chest, knowing there must be stories that go with it that I probably don't want to hear. But that is the reality of life for our men in uniform. They are equipped and they are well trained - and none is more level headed and blessed with a deep and quiet honor than my youngest son, Ben. He is gunner on a Bradley fighting vehicle, and has served two tours in Iraq now. I'm so proud to know there are men like him, and Sandoval and his other "brothers in arms" keeping watch over our country. They are so young - and yet are trusted with so much. And rightly so!

Capturing the Moment

I just finished this watercolor of my son, Cory (Weber Photography) at work on a photo shoot. I thought the textures and lighting were so interesting in this photo, so I wanted to see if I could capture the same mood in paint. Not your traditional portrait, but this picture sure tells the story of who Cory is: focused, determined, thoughtful, pleasant, handsome, brilliant, and extrememly talented! Spoken like a mom... but still true!

Kati & Whit

If this isn't the perfect advertisment for their orthodontist, I don't know what would be! He sure does good work, with these beautiful smiles. This is a watercolor portrait I just finished, and had such fun doing. I am taking comissions now, so if you would like a portrait painted, you can email me at OakleyArt@aol.com. This one is smaller - 9" x 12", but it does the trick!

My Grandson, Cowboy Liam

I am now working on art for my Illustration portfolio, as well as working on Fine Art paintings for the gallery. I knew this photo would make a great illustration! This photo was from a day last summer when all my kids ended up in Petoskey at Ben's, my youngest son's, fiance's house. Kaitlyn is a riding instructor, but my grandson Liam (5) had fallen in love with her at first sight, even before he knew she taught horseback riding. So, he was completely in his element on this day, when he got to ride horses and be with Uncle Ben and Aunt Kaitlyn too.

Painting in the Cherokee National Forrest

So.., this is what I have been doing lately! Watercolor Painting for hours and hours!! It has been great to be producing art, and I hope to do even more in the next few weeks. I just love the colors of the fall leaves and the green water against the rocks. The day was overcast, in fact it was raining when we set out for the mountains for our photo shoot. But before long, the rain stopped, and the cloud cover lent a quiteness to the rugged landscape beyond the sound of the rushing water. We had to do a little bit of climbing to get the most dramatic photgraphs I was looking for. I like to get down as close to water level as I can get. These mountains are spectacular, and the possibilities for paintings are endless. A totally new subjects lies around every curve of the river. How I love to paint the water! Many people like the still waters of the third painting in this series, but in this piece, the force of the water and the strength of these broken rocks were the dynamic composition I was searching for. This one is my favorite of the bunch.

Baby Falls

THis is actually only half of the Baby Falls, but I thought it made for a good composition. It was hard not to get lost in the many rockfaces, so I deveoloped a progressive system of painting in sections after I got the drawing carefully done.

Painting in Tennessee

I have been busy lately, spending many many hours painting at last. I was so blessed to go into the mountains with my friend Jerry, who knows the mountains well. He took me to some of the most picturesque places, and we had a great time photographing these great places. And so to be able to paint them now is a real joy. I am getting re-acquainted with my watercolors for sure! These paintings of the river are all 22" x 30" or a full sheet of watercolor paper. Nice and big, but they each took a long time to do. I am looking into getting prints done of them.