Driving Home

Tomorrow I begin a journey with my husband, 2-year-old son, and dog to see my family in Michigan.  It's about a 16 hour drive.  Can't wait to see them, but I wish we could just teleport ourselves there and skip the car ride.

More rose practice.

Fishbowl Flowers

I used to be really afraid of painting glass until recently when I took a class with Lisa Daria and she told us not to try to paint the glass, but rather paint through the glass.  It sounds so simple, but before that I would paint glass the way my mind thought it was, which was... umm... not exactly how it was.  I have this problem often with many things besides glass.  But now I'm really trying to just see the shape and form.  I'm certainly not a master at it, but I'm finding that it helps just to be aware of the battle between what's in my mind and what my eyes really see.

All Shined Up

I'm still working on roses.  This is probably the 5th or 6th one I've tried to paint.  All the others before this have been thrown out in frustration.  I'm happy with this one because I feel like I've made some progress.

Maybe I should have posted this yesterday because it's a scene from Ireland.  This came from a photo we took five years ago at a bed and breakfast in Doolin. Seeing the old photo made me want to go back. Oh, and this is oil. I actually started this one awhile ago and felt like I needed to get back to it.  Still could use a few tweaks.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Using even more green than usual today. :P 

I did try to paint again last night.  I painted this barn from a photo I took years ago in Michigan.

Since the barn didn't seem too painful, I decided that next I would agonize over painting a rose. It didn't turn out very well. So many things to work on...

Tree Family

Ok... here's yesterday's painting that I tried to rework today.

Today I was working with acrylics again.  I was really liking it... but then it dried and seemed much darker.  I felt like I had experienced this phenomenon before on a few occasions,  so I finally looked online.  It appears that acrylics DO dry darker and I'm not crazy.  It sounds like this is less of a problem with the more expensive brands, and I did buy a lot of cheap paint when I was starting out, so I'll have to try to upgrade.

I'll attempt to rescue it tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a small piece from yesterday. The trees are dark, but for this one I didn't mind.

Here we go...

I've been wanting to start this blog for months and I just couldn't bring myself to do it because I wasn't feeling good about anything I was doing. I had this great acrylics class that I really enjoyed, but when it ended I felt lost. Everything I was doing looked contrived because…well, it was contrived!  

I finally realized I'd been trying way too hard. I'd been comparing myself to other great artists and trying to mimic their techniques, but it wasn't working. I seemed to have forgotten that they have their own unique style. And about the time I accepted that, I finally did a painting I felt good about and spent a fraction of the time it had been taking me to create those ugly, contrived pieces. I know I have a lot to learn, but it's the first thing I've felt good about in awhile. 

I know I will find myself struggling again, but hopefully I can catch myself a little quicker next time.