Creating a Painting is Alot Like Decorating a Room!

A new painting in the works...

I usually start with a photo, something will strike me about the photo that says, this would make a beautiful painting

like this one....

then i pick up a similar sized canvas with my 50% off coupon for Michaels

prop it up on the easel with the photo close by

you can see on the photo, where i tested the colors i mixed by brushing them right on the paper...

here it is in the beginning stages...

painting is MESSY!

Once i get started, i don't care about the messes, what i get paint on, or anything, i just turn on my Pandora radio, grab my smokes , 

i know i'm soooo gonna die from cigarettes, it's the worst thing i do..

and go at it...

I'm like a dog circling his bed for a while before i paint, pacing around, deciding what i want to paint... etc...

If i have a big canvas, i'm always scared i'm gonna ruin it, because big canvases are expensive...

A blank canvas can be very intimidating!

see those two different size house painting brushes in all that mess on the table, i get them at the Dollar Store... so remember what they look like, and grab a handful if you see them...  if i do a tutorial, you're gonna need some

they are great, and cheap!

you know, i show you my paintings, but i don't think i'm so great at it all or anything...

half the time i spend on a painting, is fixing things i screwed up, or don't like... 

but that's why i love oil paint, it dries nice and slow...

I've decided i want this painting to work vertically or horizontally...

So maybe i could use it over my mantel...

Betsy Speert, who is a famous interior designer,  answers decorating questions FOR FREE on her blog on Tuesdays, 

she is funny as anything to read too

She told me i needed something vertical over my mantel... 

here it is still in process, i decided i didn't like the area at the bottom, it needed a dark edge, more balance, more weight to ground it... or something...

and i don't like the way that one petal in the upper left hand corner goes off the edge of the page, so i'll try some different things with that...

so here you can see i added more dark brown around the perimeter   

I'm dying to do a tutorial with you guys, so we can do a painting together... i can record on my iphone, but i'm not sure how to put the recording on the blog, any ideas of an easy way to do that?

Last night i was moving stuff around in my living and dining room, noticing the lack of balance or weight on one side of the room, there was too much black on a chalk board frame i made, too dark, 

too much stuff over here and there, 

and i was thinking, arranging a room with the right weight, and color and symmetry is just like making a painting.,..

the room you're working on is your painting 

it has to have good color, and composition and balance..

you are all painters, just in a 3 dimensional sort of way!

anyway, i'm gonna darken the edges some more, maybe add some green to the dark space to indicate,  green leaves or something...

(this is a photo from before i darkened the edges, just propped up in front of another painting, but you get the idea)

and here it is at this point, almost finished

So start grabbing those paint brushes at the Dollar Store

and let's figure out how to make a simple, but pretty painting together 

i really believe if you have the desire... that you can paint too!

...the end...