Children represent the beauty and joy that make up what is good in this world. Lilac Festival, original oil painting by Steve Henderson.

The story of the painting, Lilac Festival, original oil by Steve Henderson:

Children, and especially this one, have a special place in Steve’s heart.

Having raised four children, and been presented with one extraordinarily beautiful, precocious, and paintable grandchild, Steve looks at the world through the eyes of its smallest inhabitants, and he seeks to portray the wonder and joy that children see.

It is no accident that the time portrayed is spring, the flowers featured are lilacs, and the strong, almost abstract brushstroke treatment gives a sense of new growth, life, and movement.

“Children live in the moment,” Steve says. “When the flowers are out and the grass is growing in its outrageously green fashion, they see this, and experience this, and live this.

“They’re not thinking about what they need to be doing 15 minutes from now, or how they didn’t accomplish some major project 15 minutes ago, they are in the flowers — seeing them, smelling them, touching them, probably hearing them grow — and they remind us that life isn’t something to be endured, it is something to be lived.”

In addition to bringing out the beauty in the world, children bring out the best in the people around them. Seaside Story, original oil painting by Steve Henderson, sold; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

Read and subscribe to the entire Start Your Week with Steve newsletter.

Check out Steve’s artwork at Steve Henderson Fine Art. His original paintings are affordable; his licensed open edition prints are even more so; and his Santa and Holiday works spread the joy of Christmas all year round.

If you are a manufacturer who would like to use Steve’s artwork on your products, please contact his agents, Matt Appelman (matt.appelman@artlicensing.com). You can see Steve’s Art Licensing page here.

We encourage you, also, to check out Steve and Carolyn’s products at Amazon.com:

Live Happily on Less: 52 Ways to Renovate Your Life and Lifestyle (paperback and digital book)

Grammar Despair: Quick, simple solutions to problems like, “Do I say Him and Me or He and I?” (paperback and digital book)

Step by Step Watercolor Success — DVD digital workshop for the beginning and intermediate watercolorist.