Birthday Painting

I finally had a chance to do my birthday painting!  A week late, but that's close enough!  (I do a piece of art every year on my birthday, or in this case, close to my birthday.)  It's been a while since I've had a chance to do a painting, and it took me a bit to get into it.  I had the hardest time with this one!  It took me forever, but now that it's finished, I love it!

 

 There are different images and things that have meaning to me and to the last year of my life.  Can you guess what the dollhouse means?  Ha ha!

 

 If you count the scribbled dots in the pink and light gray sections, there are forty-one, my age this year.

 

 

I rarely use black in my work, but I was struggling so much with this piece, I decided to try it.  And you know what?  I think those are my favorite parts of the piece!  If you've read my book, you'd know how I feel about having a tough time with a piece of art.  In my experience, getting to the point where you "hate" what you're creating inspires you to try new things, which most often, "save" the piece!  That was the case with this painting- I was so unhappy with it, I decided to try the black, and ended up really liking the direction that it took!

 

Anyway, I'm so happy I've continued with these birthday pieces every year.  It's fun to look back at them to see both how I've matured, and how my artwork has matured.  If you'd like to see ones from the past, you can follow the links through this post.

 

Once more week of school for my kids (except Avery- she was done with preschool last week), then it's time for summer!  I'm both excited and a little afraid!  They're good kids, but all three of them home all day can even be a little much for the best of kids, you know?