Mural complete!

Ever since moving in I've wanted to paint the walls of our little girls' room. After scouring Pinterest and staying up late many times because my head was swimming with ideas, I decided on a garden theme. But I dreamt of a huge garden, where the flowers are huge, making the girls feel like little ants. Or like Alice. 

So we've now lived here for about 10 months and with the combination of snow days off of school and work and the big girls having rendered my art room totally unusable because of the mess their present-making has caused, I decided it was time! I couldn't paint in my studio, so I'd paint the walls! And I'm SO happy with it! 

And as always, so happy to be done. And I happened on the most perfect quote. And what makes it even more perfect? It's by Henri Matisse! Some of the first leaves I painted made me think of him. And it fits the theme without being cheesy. So happy.

Christmas present commission complete!

So I haven't painted really since I had that deadline because there was a commission I needed to do before I could play. And I was really dreading the commission. I was asked to paint a friend's previous house at Christmas time. Problem was she didn't have a picture of it at Christmas time. So she sent pictures of the old house in summer and a picture of her husband's beloved truck (parked somewhere else though). She also sent a picture of the snowman they always built named Bob and then explained where they put up lights and which window the tree was in. So there was just a lot to have to kind of make up. And a lot of specific details of cherished memories. Oi. I probably shouldn't accept commissions like this in the future. It reminds me why I left painting detailed architecture and developed my looser style in the first place. But I hope she likes it because I did try. Fingers crossed.

P.S. I just heard back from my client and she LOVES it! She said it's exactly what she wanted! Yay! 

Rolling In

Oh and I forgot to post this one too! I painted it a year ago (see the post here) but never loved anything other than the clouds. So I chopped off even more of the painting this last week to help the focus be more completely on those big ol' ominous clouds. I also painted over the white lines in the sky that were just too distracting. I think I'm finally happy with it!

And it makes me want to go mountain biking again, which is what we were doing when I saw these fantastic clouds and stopped to take pictures just long enough to completely lose my group. Ha. They noticed I wasn't still with them EVENTUALLY.

Courage

Remember this one I started back at the festival? Well I wasn't lying when I said it made me nervous to do the water. I was so worried I'd ruin what was already there that I hadn't dare lay a finger on it in two whole months! Just silly. But I have a deadline tomorrow and didn't have time to get a whole new painting done so crossed my fingers and dove in. I had no other choice really. The photo was absolutely no help, nor would it have been if I could've actually found it. But I remember that it didn't really work for a painting so I had to make it up myself, trying to be true to my style and the basics of reflection. I think it works but I'll have to sleep on it for sure. Happy Halloween!

Commission complete!

Finished and delivered! I think the variety of colors ended up looking nice, and the varying of shapes of the flowers really did make it more interesting to look at. And my customer was super happy so that's what's really important!

So hard!

I apologize for the quality of the pictures but I've been painting this in the family room and didn't feel like dragging it up to my studio to use the better lighting. I don't like the painting enough for that. But it's a commission, which is a blessing. Just wish I had any love for the painting! I had to rearrange so much, combining multiple photos and that's so amazingly challenging in a tight, detailed piece like this! You don't want to know how long I spent just staring at the photos! I then spent a whole evening drawing it.

However, a week later when I took it back out to begin painting, do you think I had any idea what I had done? Which color flowers were to go where? Which flowers from the photos I'd drawn where? Oi! So then I had to again consider which colors looked best together, how to squeeze a good variety in there but keep it balanced. I had to consider composition and variety of shape and size and all that. Oi! I don't really have the brain power for that after a full day of parenting! And how to paint shadows on yellow flowers without making them look dirty. And then, what the heck to do with all the negative space after I've moved everything all around, which requires a tightrope walk of making stuff up and painting what I see. Oi! Oi! Oi! But like I said, a commission is a blessing. Now here's hoping I can manage to finish it!

Lilacs complete

Here it is finished:

Interesting how much that green background changes it. I think because of how much yellow is in it, the background even manages to warm it up a bit. It certainly helps the flowers pop foward.

And go here to see the time-lapse video of me painting it. The video is a little bit longer than usual because all those tiny flowers take a long time to paint! No big swashes of space to throw color into quickly. Darn details.