I decided I'm really liking the crackle technique. I love how it makes these paintings looked aged, adds texture and gives them more depth. I also decided to branch out a little and add birds to my trees. Ha ha, yes, I am aware that was a very bad joke.

After some thought I decided I'm going to try and sell some prints of my art on etsy. I don't know if people will actually buy them, but it's worth a try. Even if I don't sell one it has given me an excuse to really start painting. I finished this one last week after it had been set aside for months. Most paintings can be saved no matter how ugly you might think they are. It's when I get to hate a piece that I really start to take risks because I have nothing to lose. I still need to get the paintings into a good digital format so I can get them printed. I'll let you know when I'm open for business!

Well it has been awhile since I posted some art. It is always hard for me to paint when I don't have a project planned for class. Now that I graduated I decided I have to make projects for myself otherwise I won't make art. I also realized that I am the happiest when I am creating. Christmas was a perfect excuse to start painting again. I was a little nervous about giving paintings because homemade presents often just turn into good thoughts. But I couldn't think of anything else to give my mother-in-law or Jeff's Nana. My mom had wanted a painting for a while and I know she likes anything I make (even when it's really not that good). So I made tree paintings in acrylic for the mothers. I made a smaller leaf painting for Jeff's Nana because I wasn't sure if she would want a big painting to hang in her house. Well, they were a success! They loved their presents and it helped give me some confidence. I still owe my sister Jessica a painting but I'm waiting for her to decide on exactly what she wants.

This tree was for Jeff's mom.

I strained my eye for details in my leaf painting. I started with a red under painting and worked back over it with yellows, browns, and oranges. This way all the cracks in the leaf were created by painting the space around it. Then I sanded over it and worked back into parts.

Here is another one of my tree paintings. I tried to make it more interesting with the composition and colors. I like the paint quality and worked with thicker paint and more layers. I may want to work back into it by painting over it and sanding out some of the colors and then work back into it. The problem is that the purple paint takes forever to dry because of how thick it is and all the red in it. We'll see, I may just leave it.

This is my alla prima painting of onions. It means all at once, so you paint wet on wet. I really like painting this way because it's quick, loose, and thick. We were only allowed to spend three hours on it, and I probably spent a good hour mixing the colors. I hope to do some more of these in the future.

I did this painting on a section of water from a picture I took. I like to look at it small because it almost looks like real water. This was a lot of fun to paint and really challenged my eye to see all the shapes and different colors in a square inch photo.