The story behind this commissioned oil painting begins with Mary. You can tell by the look on her face that her love for Hannah goes deep. But that's only the beginning. Mary was the Senior VP for Coffee at Starbucks for many years. She is highly supportive of coffee producing countries where she has been instrumental in helping to enhance coffee quality and standards, improving the health and education of the people employed in growing coffee.

During her extensive traveling through the coffee producing/developing countries around the world, Mary saw that a need for greater education efforts existed at all levels and a significant amount more healthcare was desperately needed everywhere she traveled. Women and children were particularly overlooked by the governments. After witnessing pilot programs for farm schools and farm clinics working successfully in the places where people actually lived and worked, Mary was inspired. Mary was prompted to start the Lacewing Foundation.

As Mary told me her story, she made a list of all the things that she would love to be on the canvas.

So Mary's list became my list and my job to arrange all the elements in the design to tell her story.

Mary sent me numerous emails with photos related to the 'list.'

Coffee beans, and in the above form referred to as coffee cherries, is a central item in the painting.

Here's a photo of the clusters of coffee cherries on the branches of a tree.

Needing something from Starbucks, Mary provided this newest "Siren's Blend" bag of coffee beans.

Here is a photo of some rows of coffee trees, with a pair of  volcanoes in the background. Guatemala has 37 volcanoes.

Volcanoes still erupt in Guatemala, one as recently as 2018.

I will highlight 4 areas of the world in this painting. New York, where Mary worked for many years. I've been given permission by the artist/photographer, Kathryn MacLeod, to use her photograph in part of the painting.

Florence, one of Mary's favorite towns in Italy.

...The vineyards of California...

...and of course, Guatemala. Mary is one of the owners of the Las Nubes Coffee Farm in Guatemala, and this is the gate at the farm.

Mary loves collecting watches. She has a great collection! I'll work them into the design.

Karl Lagerfeld is Mary's favorite fashion designer, with his iconic logo and...

...this special 'Monster' backpack.

Here are a couple of skulls that Mary has collected. We'll work one into the painting as well.

In the specialty world of coffee, Mary was affectionately known as "The Queen of Coffee," and from this point on, that will be the title of my painting. This 'queen's crown' will be the symbol of Mary's well earned title.

I've drawn this sketch in Photoshop, with the final canvas size to be 36" x 40". I've divided the upper part of the painting with the watches by push pinning each watch to the sky.

The far left watch is set at 12:19, to represent Mary's date of birth (December 19th). Also, this watch is adjacent to the grape vineyards, with a view of the ocean and a couple of palm trees to make it a California wine vineyard.

The next watch is set at 1:19, representing the time in Guatemala, with the adjacent coffee farm scene and the erupting volcano. Look closely and you can see a helicopter, hovering in to pick up Mary and Hannah for their travel to the farm.

The third watch is set at 3:19, the time in New York. The Empire State Building is seen from the Hudson river.

The fourth watch is set 9 hours ahead of California time for Italy's time zone. The Ponte Vecchio bridge represents the beautiful town of Florence.

Mary stands with Hannah at the Las Nubes open gate and in her right hand is the Karl Lagerfeld backpack. In her left hand, representing the wine of California, Mary holds a glass of Saucelito Canyon 1880 Zinfandel.

The wall will be a shade of purple, her favorite color. I've designed a fun wallpaper with her Lacewing Foundation logo, colored skulls and topped the skulls with the Queen's crown. The foreground holds a branch of coffee cherries, ready to be picked and atop a pile of spilled coffee beans, a bag of Starbuck's Siren's Blend leans against the wall.

Mary has seen the sketch and approved it, so it is time to move on to preparing the canvas.

I don't like to guess at how something should look with a particular lighting angle, so whenever possible, I like to have the actual objects to draw and paint from. You can see that I've fashioned a gate, a wall and spilled the beans.

I drew a gate on Photoshop and printed it out. I then glued the paper to a heavy chipboard and cut it out. Now I am able to really see how the gate would cast a shadow without having to go to Guatemala :-)

I've taken the bag of coffee and set it into the pile of beans, taking note of the detail of the cast shadow on the wall.

Part of the wall decoration will be a skull in different color variations. I've designed this skull in a wine grape motif. The only thing left to complete all the objects for the painting is Mary and Hannah. I'll be photographing them next.

I will be using this photo of Mary to draw and paint from. Perfect sunlit day in Laguna Beach!

Hannah is a sweetheart! Mary had a few doggie treats that held Hannah's attention. She was a perfect model! So was Mary :-)

I've penciled in my design on the linen canvas. The summer sun casts a shorter shadow for most of the day and I needed a longer shadow to enhance my design. So, with a little figuring, I've elongated the gate shadow and decided to start there on the canvas since this complex cast shadow is clear in my mind. I've anticipated a warm color for the foreground flat area, so I've brushed in a warm brown shadow color.

I've begun to define the gate colors, the purple wall color and the shadows cast on the wall by the gate.

I've continued with the purple wall color. The lacewing logo is a challenge, requiring many hours rendering with a 00 sable brush.

Here is the longer section of wall to the right. I'll begin putting in the various colors of the skulls and crowns next.

Here's an overall look at the entire canvas. Lots of white space to conquer.

Although the wall will require hours of meticulous drawing with the paintbrush, the final effect will be well worth the effort. Here, I've designated colors to the skulls.

There will be more detailing in the skulls as I go along. There will be real fine linework, representing the grape vines and also outlining the leaves and eyes.

The first layer of paint is completed on the face of the wall. Even the white lacewings have been painted with a slightly grayed down white.

Here's a look at the longer section of wall.

The top and side of the wall has been painted with their lighter values of purple. This is the wall on the left and...

...this is the wall on the right. I made the cast shadows of the watches follow the same angle as the shadows cast by Hannah, Mary and the gate.

Moving away from the wall, I've blocked in the sky, shared by all four images. The sky pigment is a mixture of thalo blue, cadmium yellow and white.

I've painted in Mary with thinned out oil pigment, capturing the overall light and shadow patterns. When I apply the final layer of thick oil pigment, I'll paint in the intricate pattern on the backpack.

Hannah is rendered with her first layer of paint. See how you can see the fine texture of the linen canvas. I use Fredrix Rix DP, the highest quality and finest surface made. It allows me to get the detail necessary in my work.

I've jumped down the canvas to the coffee cherries, painting each one separately, modeling them with the proper lighting.

Here's a look at the relationship between the cherries, Mary and Hannah.

Continuing to build on the branch of coffee bean cherries.

A few more cherries and...

...a look at the whole branch.

I've finished the first layer of paint on the coffee tree branch, rendering the leaves along with the remaining cherries.

Here is the entire canvas, showing how the foreground branch is a major design element in the painting.

The next object to be painted is the bag of Siren's Blend coffee beans. I worked on the copper/brown areas of the bag first.

This photo shows the relationship of the coffee bag with the foreground branch of coffee cherries.

The first stage of the coffee bag is finished. There are many variations of each color to begin to show the character of the bag with all its wrinkles and reflective areas.

I will render the coffee beans next, studying the maze of the varied hues of brown.

Here's a peek at the overall painting.

I've added the various hues and and highlights in the spilled beans. It is now evident that they will be darkened further in the final layer of pigment.

I've moved my brush into the background, concentrating on the Guatemala section. The background volcano and middleground hillside have been brushed in, keeping the distant mountains/volcano in a cool purple hue to help it recede visually. I also put in the helicopter with a double ought sable brush.

The coffee bean field is loosely brushed in as well as the rich soil up to the purple wall.

The far left, "California Vineyard," section is blocked in.

This photo shows the two sections on the left of the canvas.

The window to New York has been blocked in, covering the overall hues and values of the basic shapes. The intricate details of the buildings will be rendered with the final layer of paint.

Here's the entire canvas so far.

I've sketched in the water under the bridge and have begun to render the buildings on the bridge.

The detail of all the windows, building colors and shading begins.

I've taken the buildings' details as far as I want. Additional detail will come later.

Aside from the watches, the painting has reached the half-way point. I'll begin detailing each watch.

I've begun with the watch on the left. It has a beautiful red band with variations of dark and light red throughout. The yellow push pin, popping out of the sky, helps create the illusion of space.

This close-up shows the smooth texture of the portrait linen, allowing me to create detail without the interference of a rough canvas texture. It also shows you how thin my first pass of paint is... too thin to cover the pencil lines of my drawing.

The face of this watch has numbers reminiscent of images from Alice in Wonderland. Very whimsical!

I've begun the next watch with the white band. Here's a look at the push pin and buckle at the top.

The Salvatore Ferragamo watch face is painted in. The crisp shadow on the watch face gives the watch depth. Each jewel that is set in the bezel will be rendered to show the sparkle from the sun.

This watch is set for 3:19 pm, New York time.

The silver buckle has reflections of warm and cool, the cool being the reflections of the sky above. Those little warm spots on the bottom of the buckle are reflections of the bright sunlit ground below.

This photo shows the whole watch, pinned to the distant sky but casting its shadow on the purple wall in the foreground.

This is the fourth watch, pinned to the sky. It has a warm reddish brown strap and gold trim.

The strap looks a little rough at this point. It will be softened when I can blend the thicker paint on the final passage of oil.

Here is the watch face, the time set for Italy. Those are diamonds floating in the bottom of the watch face.

The fifth and final watch has a nice blue band, interjecting a cooler color on the sky.

This watch serves as a border in the sky, directing the viewer's eye back into the painting.

The whimsical face of the watch gives us an insight into the owner's creative nature.

Here is a look at the entire canvas. There is more detail in this painting than any painting I have painted to date, taking more time to illustrate all the intricate objects. Now I will begin to lay on the final layer of oil pigment, refining all those details and adjusting color and value.

Here I am applying the final coat of paint in the sky. Notice how much darker it is than the first layer.

Each skull has a lot of detail scrollwork on top of the flatter layers of color.

Here's another closeup look at the detail on the wall. The Lacewing symbols took days to render them properly.

Although the wall required extensive detail, there will be the same attention to the coffee beans, and the coffee cherries.

The sky, the wall and the ground in the foreground are completed. Notice how the foreground color transitions from a medium value to a lighter value as it moves towards the sun direction on the right.

The final passage of paint is complete on the vineyard.

The Guatemala section with the volcanic smoke is finished.

I've begun the detail on the buildings in the New York skyline. I've started with painting in horizontal lines of color to separate the floors in the buildings. Next, I'll put in the windows and other details.

Here are a few close-ups of all the buildings and Hudson river...

See how thick the paint is applied.

The shapes of the boats are kept simple but are easily recognized.

It took a couple of weeks to render this scene.

All the buildings on the bridge with their windows and shutters are painted in. The reflections in the water add another dimension of interest to this part of the painting.

The watches require a lot of study to get the details right. I've started with the watch to the far left. Here is an overall photo of the finished watch.

These very close-up photos show the texture of both the linen canvas surface as well as the thickness of the last layer of paint.

The pushpin is an iconic shape that I have always loved to render in a painting.

The watch band is a small painting in itself. Look at the juicy movement of color contained in this 3/4" width!

The second watch has a fairly uniform pattern on the watch band, requiring many globs of off white paint. Here is the buckle and push pin.

This watch face with all its jewels is done.

And now, a look at the entire watch.

Now on to the black upside down trapezoid watch. As with the other watches, I've worked from top to bottom, rendering the pushpin and buckle first.

This watch face was a little simpler than some, painted mainly with variations of black, gold and silver.

When you look at the entire watch, you'll notice that the strap isn't perfectly straight. The band tends to bend with the strain it is under being buckled and unbuckled.

The fourth watch has a smooth gold buckle and a brown alligator band.

The watch face is like a shadow box with all the diamonds stacking randomly at the bottom.

Take a look at the entire watch. It has become quite a bit darker than it appeared after the first thin coat of paint.

The final watch's push pin reflects its red hue in the buckle.

The watch face has a great deal of very intricately painted numbers, each with its own color.

With the final watch rendered, I'll move down the painting into the foreground.

Painting the gate didn't require a lot of thinking. I mixed three values of yellow and four values of blue and precisely painted them in place.

I've just completed the bag of coffee. Lots of detail and subtle shades of various hues of brown.

My eyes are worn out from painting all the coffee beans. There were about 8 hues and values of browns, cool and warm, carved into this pile.

Here is a closer look at the beans.

I've completed all the red and orange coffee cherries.

The green cherries, the branch and the leaves will be painted next.

The entire branch of coffee cherries is finished. Here are a few photos...

Now I will apply the final brush strokes to Mary and Hannah!

Here are all the colors I mixed just to paint Mary's hat. There are 10 in all, each one having a place in rendering the subtle shades of the hat.

I've completed Mary's hat and her face. Notice the subtle use of pinks/reds reflecting up into her flesh tones from her bright colored blouse.

Mary is finished, from top to bottom, even the wild little pattern on the backpack! She turned out great!

Hannah has been holding this pose for months! Great job, Hannah! You can relax now!

"The Queen of Coffee" is finished!

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