Courage

Courage!

I am choosing as my theme word for 2016

You, guessed it,

COURAGE 

Courage to change,

Courage to improve.

Courage to feel.

Courage to hope.

Courage to let loose.

Courage to be happy.

2016 brought many changes.

Change is usually pretty uncomfortable, 

but often necessary.

I closed my gallery.

The two boys we had living with us are no longer here.

I am uneasy politically in my world.

I must loose weight.

I want to de-clutter and organize my home.

As I looked over my list of changes that had to be made,

I started getting ideas of how to do it.

I have made spread sheets,

joined a support group,

and laid out goals and deadlines for how I want to make changes.

It takes courage to change.

It takes courage to stick with the change process.

It takes courage to admit that maybe

 I wasn't right in past endeavors.  

 
I will need Courage in all the ways I'm changing in 2016.

I have taken a bit of a sabbatical for the last month as Jim and I took a trip to the unsunny sunshine state.  That didn't work out to well. 

After closing the gallery, I had lots of "stuff" to bring home and then I had to find new homes for it in my home.  That is mostly done now, and it is amazing, after I finished organizing the last section, I felt my spirit lift and I knew I was ready to paint again.  My studio was quite the mess, but once I got it under control, BOOM, the urge to paint returned. 

I laid out a year long plan to de-clutter my home.  I am going to tackle one room a month. January had me doing my bedroom.  I can now happily say I have been through every drawer, armoire, and closet and thrown out things I haven't used in years.  I love to go in there now.  

It is wonderful to have your spirit lightened.

I wanted to lose weight, (doesn't everyone), and I was invited into a weight loss challenge group.  I am now exercising every day, keeping a food journal, counting calories, paying more attention to what I eat and trying to enjoy it more.

And I've even eliminated about 90% of the sugar in my normal diet.

Thanks to the encouragement from my group, and the dedication I summoned for this change, I am seeing moderate success.

I love to study the scriptures, but sadly had gotten out of the habit, so that was also on my list of lifestyle changes I needed to make.

Spirituality is very important to me so I devised a plan

and so far, I'm sticking to it.

Change is hard.

But we can do HARD things.

On this blog in the near future I will be posting new artwork,

new free painting lesson videos, and motivation Monday topics, some related to painting, some just related to life.

Hopefully you'll join in and

 pass what you find interesting along.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Don't forget I give away a free painting every month.

  Click the button at the top right to get signed up. 

December Winner

December Winner

 and a Rescue

Gwen was the lucky winner of the December painting

 of an Osprey.   

 I took the photo for reference in Naples, FL.

Heading back there real soon.

I give away a painting every month,

so scroll back up to the top of this page

to the right and sign up to win the January painting.

If you've already signed up once,

you're in.

Now for the rescue.

I bought a set of wooden canisters from the 50's or 60's

at an auction a few months ago.

I brought them home and cleaned them up and then 

repainted them.

I gave them to my granddaughter Kelsie

for her hope chest.  She's a college student and has been collecting things for her own home for several years.

They look white but they're almost a taupe

and the little knobs on the top are white.

Then I added some chalk board stickers.

I think they are so cute.

Paint is the cheapest way to transform anything

and these wooden canisters went from barely wanted,

to really cute.

This was the vision

 

Changes

Changes

and lots of them.

I have not posted for a while

because I closed River Run Gallery over Christmas.

Getting all that artwork, supplies, books,

and lots of stuff home and a new studio set up

has taken more time than I expected.

I did a commission for Christmas

and didn't want to spoil the surprise,

so I didn't post it until now.

And now I just realized I didn't take a final photo of it.

  This painting is of two houses that are very important to the gentleman who commissioned them, but they are not side by side as shown.

At the end of every session I would text him and send him a photo of where I was in the painting.

After I sent him this one, we both felt it needed something in the top left corner, so I added a flock of geese.

But then forgot to take that last photo.

This painting is a 10" x 20" stretched canvas.

If you'd like a painting of your humble abode,

email me at slgraves6@gmail.com.

Anyway,

now I am trying to figure out where I go from here in my art career.

I am taking several weeks off 

so you won't hear from me for a while.

Then, I'll be back baby,

and I'll get all over it.

I have many plans for my art future,

some of which include promoting my online beginning painting course,

click here to see it.  

I have a great dressing table I'm finishing

and will be up for sale by the end of the month.

I've painted some small canvas pins  

I'll be showing soon. 

I'll be showing my online beginning painting course at a homeschool convention in Cincinnati during the end of March and 1st of April.

I also want to make more short beginning painting videos that will be on my facebook page for paintingwithacrylics101.

And I'll still be giving away a painting every month.

Speaking of which,

I'm getting ready to draw out a name

and when I do, I'll send you an email and you'll have 24 hours to contact me back.

So there's lots going on in my studio,

but for now,

I'm purging closets, drawers, rooms,

and then heading south the end of this week.

 

In case you haven't noticed,

I've added a page to this blog

of available paintings.

See you in the funny papers.