Hello my dear friends.  I hope you're enjoying this season that's perfect for drinking hot chocolate and wearing cozy sweaters.

I'm working on my next biggish painting but I've hit the ugly stage...it is so hard to keep going at this middle point.  The colours seem wrong and the composition seems to have altered and not for the best....BUT...I know that this too will pass.  I almost always struggle at the mid point in a painting.  Part of the issue is my own doing. I enjoy the freedom of the beginning stage where I can slap on the paint and not worry too much about the details.  It's a fun and very freeing experience that comes after working long hours doing the detail on my last painting.  It's so much fun that I get a little careless and then when I start pulling the scene together with the bigger objects and coordinating colours...well it can really get ugly.

This is where a pep talk comes in handy.  I have to tell myself to work fast and get it fixed...because it will improve...it will become something I can be proud of.  The self talk works somewhat but I usually end up taking a few days break and often start my next painting.  So that's what I'm doing today.  First the gesso and then the base colour...  That's it.  I won't allow myself to do the fun blocking in until I get the present painting to the stage where I can enjoy looking at it.  We artist types have to work hard at the self discipline stuff.  I can do this...  

How about you?  Do you have to put some extra effort into your project?  How about those New Years resolutions...don't give up...you can do it.

ps. For some reason My Friend follower app at the side has malfunctioned and I have lost about three hundred of my followers.  If you are one of them, please sign in again.  Thanks.

January's Painting Complete?

It's done!  I think.  

While this new January 2013 painting dries enough to be varnished, I have to come up with a name for it.  In the meantime it hangs on my wall where I can enjoy it.  My large landscapes never seem to stay around long so I appreciate my time with each one.  I paint what I enjoy and I sell them so that others can as well. It always thrills me to know that my paintings, that took so much of my time to create, are now hanging in homes all over the world. What an honour these collectors bestow on me by displaying my art.  Thank you.

Photo is missing a lot of the subtle colours.  

30"h x 24"w oil on board

If you feel inspired and can give me some ideas for its new name...let me know.

Happy New Year Everyone!!! 

2012 was a wonderful year for me... 

My son from Ontario, came to visit, and helped celebrate my 60th birthday...  I was able to go camping a lot and I finally mastered the very enjoyable activity of painting while sitting beside the lake, in a lawn chair.  I was able to paint more due to improved health and I doubled my income from sold paintings...that's three years in a row......wow, thank you Lord.

2013 is here and I'm very excited...

I am planning a trip to visit my four year old grandson in Mexico city.   My husband and I going to celebrate our 25th anniversary and I'm going to paint the bigger paintings I've always wanted to, but always shied away from.  I will be brave.

To all my faithful blogging buddies, collectors, friends and family...may your year be filled with much joy, love, and good health.