Brave New---Well, re-visited, World

If you were to come into my little home, you would see several things displayed on my walls (and, no, the unknown streaks put there by my son don't count...I am still trying to figure out if I really want to touch them...). There is a clock, and some stockings (which I made before I was correctly instructed on crocheting), a framed "A Proclaimation to the World," and at the focal point of the room is a painting. It's a nice little painting! I painted it for Jeremy one Valentine's Day, and while it isn't remarkable, I happen to like it, and if you don't, then you have no taste. This painting took me quite a long time. I started out with a drawing of two trees that were supposed to be growing together, and after quite a few lapses in judgement and the chaos that is mixing mediums (NEVER EVER mix acrylic paint, pencil, and oil pastels...), I chose a different route, and ended up with the Lighthouse.

I have received several critiques on this painting, most of which involve the bush miraculously growing from the rock which is also trying to eat the lighthouse. But I still like it.

On the wall kitty-corner to the wall with this painting is another painting I did, just for fun. I got a day calendar that was all moons, and I just looked at it and decided I needed a blown up version on my wall. This took me 4 hours, roughly (Yeah, I know! Amazing, huh? I must have had a Muse possessing my body).

It isn't a very good photograph of it...But people have asked me if it is a photo. :D Except Mom, the astronomer, who looked at it and said "That can't be a picture! The full moon can't be on the same side as a setting sun!" Little did I know... and thus collapsed my beliefs about the photos in my day calendar...

Anywho, I decided a few days ago that I needed to pick up the brush again, and make another Dara Masterpiece (Which is a degree lower than, say, an artfully scooped pile of kitty litter or the unknown smears on my walls.).
I found a website that shows you how to do certain things with acrylic paints, and they had a demo for a seascape with a breaker. It is gorgeous! And, since the artist did it in five easy steps, well, golly, so could I!

Let's just say that I wasted three hours and two pieces of canvas paper, and just for the record, adding more paint doesn't help a picture along. Amidst my anxious painting attempts, Jeremy called me up and asked how it was going. I grumbled something and he said, "Well, Da Vinci took a long time with his paintings..." to which I replied "You aren't helping..."

A few hours and a few gallons of paint later, I decided that, yes, I needed to take my time if I didn't want to go crazy. I decided that even though the artist had five steps, he obviously spent quite a lot of time making sure each step was done correctly (apparently, Bob Ross is a one-of-a-kind super-speedy painter. Perhaps it's all those "happy little trees!").

So, currently, on my counter is my five step painting, at stage one. It has some promise, but I don't intend to waste my efforts by speed-painting. Mom told me once that while painting I should have fun with it, and while I may not be having fun yet, at least I am semi-non-stressed about it.