6/25/16...

I couldn't leave the bugs up for very long!  Oh they are still in the archive.  Just not front and center.  Ha! :)

So let's circle back to art.  I mentioned last week that I had begun painting again.  I started an oil painting and primed another canvas, but I found myself pulled to work in watercolors.  I haven't really painted anything in watercolors in months.  I've really been trying to flex my fledgling art muscles with learning the whims of oil paints.  So I didn't want to flip and flop back and forth between the two.  And with limited space, set up of each vastly different medium becomes tedious.  I like to dream that "some day" I'll have a big enough studio where I can have a dedicated oil paint space separate from a dedicated watercolor space (and then a dry area for photography/computer stuff along with a really dry area for sewing).  If you follow me on Pinterest, you know I have a board dedicated to what I like to call "The Dream Space".  Which....again "some day"....I hope to convert a house into an artist's retreat for creating.  Pinning is wonderful for dreaming about those lottery ideas.  I would like to have a space where I can go and create, and inspire others to come and create too.  My friend Toni and I brainstorm and answer questions and inspire each other whenever we get together.  The Dream Space jumped off from one of those conversations.  

Anyway, I digress.  

I wish I was one of those artists who can put down a few strokes with a paintbrush and call it done.  I have to work hard to complete something.  Overthinking is something I excel at, so why not with my art too?! Ha!  Seriously though, I admire the artist who can mix easily, paint simply and know exactly when something is done.  I'm still in the rookie stage where it's difficult to hold myself back.  Sometimes though (see my painting "The Dream"), magic happens and it all falls into place with little agony.  I'm creating a slide show with this post of my painting I'm working on.  Because I'm self-taught with watercolor, how I paint is simply my own process.  I'm SURE I have bad habits or could be doing something more efficiently.  But again, when you are figuring stuff out on your own....this is my way of doing it.  I'm currently trying to resolve a couple of issues....having my green not be so static; and creating movement and realism in the dress on the girl.  I'm scrubbing the heck out of the paper (I'm sorry) in order to blend, blend, blend.  Thankfully, it's really good artist grade and can take a beating.  I've been really thinking about concept and composition when I paint.  It matters to me that I'm not just doing a still life or another landscape.  Don't get me wrong here.....  I LOVE painting both of those, but I want to tap into what's inside of me.   I think I have some stuff to share that will touch people.  

Or I could be full of it.  ;)  Positive out, positive in.  I have stuff I want to share!  And you as my audience will either react, or stay silent.  Either way, it's additional time to paint.  And for that, I'm always grateful!  Must close this for now.  Enjoy the progress photos.  Have a good week!