Christmas train

Our family went to the Tweetsie Railroad amusement park during the summer. While walking past the front of the train I noticed the engineer shining the brass bell. I asked my wife to take a photograph because I thought I might paint that scene on canvas. After returning home, I developed the film and sat the photo by my easel to begin the oil painting. At first I considered changing the train engineer's red hair color to perhaps a brown. I decided to paint his hair red just as it was in the photograph. After finishing the oil painting I placed the image on my website. A few weeks later I received an email from a lady who wanted to purchase the original and three limited edition prints. She said that the engineer was her son and the painting would be a Christmas gift for him. In December my wife and I drove to Banner Elk to deliver the painting in person. His mom introduced us to the engineer with red hair in my painting called Reflecting on Tweetsie.
I'm often asked to tell that story so I thought I would share it with others.
Merry Christmas!
-Stacy Bottoms NC Artist