I wanted to capture the joy of the Christ child being born moments after it happened. I realize that very few (if any) mothers are standing shortly after labor, but I chose this position because I wanted a vertical composition.



In order to capture the moment as it really would look, when mother embraces her newborn child for the first time, I used a photo I took of my wife holding our child for the first time. I had my wife pose in a standing position wearing clothing appropriate for Mary, and composited the two pictures to create this painting.