It's a joy to be able to create paintings with personal memories that people will cherish for years or leave as a legacy for their family. Since 2021, Ednas' on The Green, a popular food truck dining and music venue in southern area of The Villages, has been the subject of four commissions that I painted for Villagers. 

 The moss in the trees was blowing as I painted for several hours and enjoyed the music of Johnny Wild & the Delights. At the VAL Summer Art Festival in July at Lake Miona a lady mentioned that she and her husband had watched me begin the painting on that windy day at Ednas'.  I said, "I brought it today, but it's not finished yet." She remarked, "We want to purchase it----if you will paint us into the painting." 

Then when I was revising the painting a couple came to my home studio to purchase another artwork. When they saw the Ednas' painting at my easel, they wanted to purchase it, too! But since it was sold, they sent family photos for the second commission Family Fun at Ednas' on The Green.

In September, 2023 a family member in that second version told her friend, Peggy, about their Ednas' painting. So Peggy called to commission a painting with ten family members at Ednas'. As Pegg and Joe celebrated their granddaughter's birthday with their family I took many photos and placed them in various poses in the oil painting. It was like putting a puzzle together: Fun at Ednas' on The Green. They also requested prints on canvas, personalized Christmas cards, magnets and placemats.

In December of 2023 Susie and Danny Smiley came to my home studio to purchase Christmas cards and noticed the third Ednas' at the easel. What a coincidence, his mother and her grandmother were both named Edna! On Jan. 28 Susie and Danny came to ARTS Around the Square to see the progress of their painting, Two Ednas. The completed painting took 49 hours and it was like putting a puzzle together. They sent me photos of friends and family from across the United States that I included in this memorable painting.

Change is in the air as the food trucks were replaced by an air conditioned kitchen that opened in May, 2024. It's for the comfort of the chefs, and rightly so...but through my artwork those quaint trucks can continue to tickle our hearts!