Painting...

I love to paint.  I love the process of it.  I love how it mirrors life so much.  You start from where you are, layers are built, you aren't sure where in the world you're going but you trust and keep going.  You get signs along the way and if you follow them...magic.  I love this painting.  And what I love even more is that, when I stood back and looked at this background, the angels showed me this figure.  The skirt is made up of torn pieces of paper from something I wrote.  Usually, if I use torn paper, it's from an old book but this time I wanted the piece to have a certain energy, message and feel to it.  The name of this piece is "divinity."  "We are always becoming.  We are always gravitating towards our own divinity."  I love that message.  I showed this painting to my Mom as I was working on it and she said she wanted to buy it...YAY!  So very excited about that.  I've sold cards before but this will be the first painting that I've sold and that is pretty amazing.

face your fears

When I think about where I started with painting I'm amazed that already, this is where I'm at.  I think I've mentioned that my venture into painting started when samantha kira harding posted an invitation on her facebook page for a weekly paining circle.  Now, I've always loved to use paint in my work but didn't consider myself a painter.  Yet, something inside of me said to just go for it and give it a try, so, thankfully, I did.  This was my first painting, done in January.  It's title, "face your fears," was exactly where I was at.  I was afraid to paint, afraid to put myself out there but the desire to be who I really am and show people that became greater than my fear.  I worked through my fear in this painting.  I really do love the energy of it.  I remember working on this painting, just showing up and trusting Divine forces to pull out of me what I needed to say.  And when I was done, I was actually surprised at what came out.

no longer willing to hide

  When it came time to paint my week 2 painting the phrase, "I'm no longer willing to hide," kept appearing in my head.  I did the background for this one 3 times before it was the way I wanted it.  Whenever frustration wanted to creep in, I would remind myself how much I was learning about what I liked and didn't like, what worked and didn't work for me.  This painting isn't finished but I'm okay with where it's at for now.  I was proclaiming to myself that I'm no longer willing to hide who I really am, no longer willing to hide my love of art and creativity and certainly no longer willing to hide my talents.  I love the hands in the pupils, the creative hands that I want to show the world.
                                                                            

dig deep

Week 3 is probably still one of my favorites.  On occasion I would draw the face of these girls.  I love my girls, I love their round cheeks.  I was worried at first to actually paint one of my girls but once again I decided to just go for it and see how it turned out.  I am so very glad I did because I freakin love her so much!!!  I especially love her eyes, the color and the life in them, fab-u-lous!  I think I really could benefit from checking a thesaurus for other words to use besides "love" but for right now, I'm going to stick with that one.  I love so much about this painting.  I took a very slight turn toward mixed media with this one.  I used flexible modeling paste for her hair (which my son says looks like chocolate frosting), I used chipboard paisley shapes for her wings, and a tissue type paper that came with some flowers for her dress.  And can I just say how much I love her teeny tiny feet?  Too cute.  I had also purchased my first Golden Acrylic paint, green gold, which is a fabulous color.  I decided to write some words on the background and at first I thought I might ruin it.  But again, I decided to just do it and see how it worked out.  I love the message:  Dig deep to find the ties that bind you to the ground of other people's beliefs.  Release them -cut the ties-cut yourself free so that you can fly.  Again, that's where I had been personally.  I was releasing all of those beliefs, about being an artist especially, and cutting myself free and deciding what I really felt and believed about it.  I'm all about flying these days as you can tell from the "fly" fabric book I've been posting pictures of.

shining star

Painting four, "shining star."  At this point I'm not so much painting every week but I am still painting and the way I see it, that's really all that matters.  I originally painted different colors on this canvas but didn't like it so I gessoed it and painted over it.  It's definitely different but I like it.  I love the silver stars and how they pop out at you.  And of course, the message:  Close your eyes And let yourself see, The star that you Were created to be.  Seek your truth, Honor who you are, Shine brightly into the world, For you are a shining star!  And, as seems to be the pattern, this is another place I was at.  Realizing that it's my time to shine and that I was tired of sinking into the background for fear I would be taking away from someone else getting attention.  Silly when I think about it now but it was a necessary step on my path and I'm okay with it now.

drips

Paintings 5 & 6 have sat for quite some time as I wasn't sure if they were done.  Honestly, I'm still not sure.  They don't have a message, just me playing with paints and techniques.  The poor things don't even have names but I'm okay with that.  I learned from them both.  I had fun playing with paint drips which I was inspired to do by both donna downey and nolwenn petitbois.  And I like the drips, they're fun.  In the painting with the leaves, I had a lot of fun creating texture and layers.  And I so wish I had taken pictures of that one along the way because that was a painting that I looked at and said, "I have no idea where in the world this is going, I don't even know if I like it, but I'm going to stick with it and see where it goes."  Boy, am I so glad that I did because I really do like it.  I keep feeling like it needs something more but it has yet to tell me what it wants me to add to it so it just sits.


There are a couple of more that are in progress but not at a picture stage.  I love the painting group I jointed, there are very talented and encouraging women there and I am blessed to be a part of it.  I am so glad I decided to embark on this painting journey because I am in love with it!  As I grow and learn and progress, my painting and the rest of my art grows and progresses and I'm excited to see where it takes me.  It is one of the bravest places in my life because, when it comes to art, I dive right in and give it a try and see if it'll work.  And if it doesn't, I'm okay with that because I learn.  And isn't life really like that?  You dive in, you give it a try, you see if it works, you aren't sure along the way where the heck you are going but...when you get there, you look back and appreciate the journey.  For it's all a part of who we are and it is amazing and blissful and fantastic.  The process of becoming, always in that process of becoming.  And I don't know about you but I love the process of becoming.  So I'm going to keep painting, keep creating, keep exercising my creative muscles and see where it all takes me.  And I am going to enjoy the passion I have for art and the joy of creating it every step of the way.