“Dear Jesus” is a modern-day interpretation of the timeless Prayer Children painted in 1940 by Bessie Pease Gutmann. A copy of Gutmann’s prayer girl was painted by my mother, a portrait painter, in the ‘50’s and hung over my bed with “Kathy’s Prayer” written across the bottom.
When I was commissioned to paint a children’s calendar, I was greatly influenced by the softness of Guttman’s work. I decided to combine the storytelling theme of Norman Rockwell with the soft style of Guttman to create my own work. However, it is the influence of my mother who is painted into the layers of each painting.
