Vanderbilt for a Friend

"Vanderbilt"

9"x12" 

I painted this tower at Vanderbilt University for a very good friend for a Christmas present. She and her husband and daughter all graduated from there and anyone that knows her knows that she is one huge fan of everything Vandy! In fact, she is a current Board of Trust member and also served in the past as National Alumni President. My son is currently a Vandy undergraduate, and when we were visiting in the fall for a football game, I decided to go out scouting for a reference to paint for her. I got up early one morning and planned on getting some early morning light photos from which to choose the perfect scene for my painting. As I was drinking my coffee from the breakfast room of the hotel, I looked out the window and saw this view above. The line of early morning clouds were perfectly lined up in the sky and the light was just beautiful on the tower and the surrounding area. I quickly grabbed my camera and went to shooting through the glass window. The other breakfast eaters all looked at me strangely, but I didn't care. I knew I only had a few moments to capture that light and just kept shooting. It turned out I loved the shots and decided I didn't even need to step outside to go shoot anything else. She loves the painting and has it proudly displayed in her home with some other important Vanderbilt things. This is one of the joys I have as an artist - to be able to make other people happy with something I create!