Polar Express Painting

One of my favorite Christmas books is The Polar Express.

As a kid we had a set with a cassette tape and a little bell.  I remember sitting in our living room on the couch, the only lights were from the Christmas tree, and listening to the tape feeling like I was really "reading" the book as a little girl.

This story was always really magical to me.

"Santa's Bell"

acrylic on 14x14 canvas

So I wanted a little tribute to the book, and have been planning this painting for a long time.

I traded with my friend Jill a while ago, and I had her make the last line from the book for me in black vinyl.

In the story, you can only hear the bell if you believe in Santa

So it's finally all together.

Rather than painting the whole train, I chose to just paint the bell that's actually the last picture in the book because that seemed a lot easier.

I'm not a great artist, but I like the way it came out.

The first stage:

Next I painted the body of the bell, and realized the whole thing was too monochromatic.

Once I took the picture, the painting was pretty much black and white gray scale. 

So I just added some navy blue to the background to hopefully make the bell pop. 

This painting took place over about a week and a half--when my son would paint on construction paper, I'd sit by him and work on the bell.

One afternoon we were listening to instrumental Christmas music, and I looked over and he'd totally zonked.

Sometimes I wish I could sleep anywhere like kids.

So right now I can't decide if I should hang it on the wall, or keep it on the mantle where it's sitting right now.

Hmmm....