Sometimes a painting just needs tweaked.

 I do a lot of paint and wine classes, sans wine.  Sometimes a painting will look okay when I leave class but later I will realize it's not quite what I wanted.  This is one of the reasons I have paints at home.  

For example, we did this mermaid tail at our last class.  Not bad, but for one thing, the littlest starfish blends in with the tail.  And the shells don't look right. 

So I looked up some images of starfish and shells online (which I should have done while in class).  And I changed it.  

I like the new version much better.  And I'm glad I didn't give up on it.  

Winter Wonderland painting

So a few days ago, I went to The Brush Bar by myself to do a painting.  My usual cohorts couldn't attend, but I'd been wanting to do this painting.

I am generally an introvert, but I feel quite comfortable at the Brush Bar.  And the people at the table where I sat were friendly and funny, laughing, complimenting everyone's paintings, singing and chair-dancing to the music.

The instructor painting had only two colors, but I thought there needed to be green in the painting.  Quite pleased with the result.

Christmas Cactus painting

Every year our paint place (The Brush Bar) posts at least one new Christmas themed painting.  This year, I made custom greeting cards (Shutterfly) from two of the previous years' paintings. 

This year's offering was a cheerful Christmas cactus.  Quite appropriate in a state where people actually do decorate their cactus. 

This one will definitely be next year's greeting card.

This painting was my idea.

My friends and I had a painting class last night.  I decided I didn't want to paint the class picture.  So I brought in my own idea.  The instructor was very sweet and gave me advice on texturing. 

Pretty happy with the result.  No idea what to call it.  Desert Sunset #1?

Sometimes completed isn't done

Last weekend we did a painting class for a painting called Sunset Beach.  When I finished class, I had a pretty good representation of the painting.
 

But the more I looked at it, the less I liked it.

For one thing, what was the reflection being reflected from?  For another, why so much empty sea on the right side.  Couldn't the island have been made bigger?  Or would that still have left it unbalanced?

I have some paints at home, so I started tinkering with it.  Added a sun and another island.


Better, but I was still unhappy with it.  The sand was too dark, and honestly, poorly done on the left island.

So I took one more stab at it.


This one I like!

Christmas Reindeer

Been doing those paint and wine classes for the past 18 months.  Last week it was a cartoony reindeer.  But I modified mine to include longer antlers and decorations.  Very happy with the result.