I told you I was drawing a flower the other day. I finished the roses, then decided to paint them instead of using colored pencil. Okay... I'm biting my lip again... but here they are in all their amateurish glory. I have never taken any painting lessons and I really have no idea what the heck I'm doing. I just read art books, and must look at pictures in order to draw at all. My art classes in college were geared toward education majors not art majors, so... well so it shows. The one talent I have always wished I had was the ability to draw and paint. I don't have that natural talent. I simply have shear determination and force of will. This is the best I can do. I'd love to take lessons but the only available painting classes are just out of my $$$ reach. If I lived in more populated area, then maybe they would be more affordable. That's okay, I have many blessings and thank goodness for rubber stamp art ya know! How wonderful to be able to have them to allow us to make our own art. And you know what? I had FUN doing these!!
These are all the paintings I've done in the last few months. The poppies on the right were the first. I see many mistakes (I struggle with perspective even though I'm looking right at a picture) but I also see bright colors and they make me happy.
Am I going to hang any of these? I don't know, maybe the doors. They might look nice on either side of the collage of Dublin doors. I made the collage in Photoshop after visiting Ireland last year. This is my studio/craft room by the way.
So, why did I take all the pictures of doors in Dublin? Well all the houses in this area of the city are row houses, with connecting walls. Back in the day, the doors all looked alike and when the men came home from an evening of drinking with the boys, they sometimes went into the wrong house. So the women, wanting to keep their husbands in line, painted their doors bright colors. Some men still entered the 'wrong' houses, claiming they were color blind. So the resourceful Irish wives then added elaborate sidelights and palladian windows. The custom stuck and now Dublin is quite famous for its doors. I found them to be completely charming, so we walked all over the city so I could take pictures of them! As we walked block after block, my son asked if I was going to take pictures of every door in the city!
This frame doesn't really do them justice. I got it because it was on sale. I think I'm going to mat them in black and stain the frame a darker color, maybe a rich mahogany.
