I can't believe how rapidly Mary Kay executes her ideas. She thought about the subject of St. Charles for some time before making the sketch at the beginning of summer. The sketch sat in the back room while she worked on other paintings during the summer. Presumably ideas were working themselves out somewhere deep in her subconscious. She started the actual painting only a couple days ago. The first version looked pretty good, several people commenting on it, but she wasn't entirely pleased. Today, she spent a good part of the day working on color, the face, the crucifix, etc. Here is the finished painting.
