Don’t look too closely…

Lookie, lookie! I painted a frog!

I am super proud of myself over the smallest things.

This is a brand-new painting, done start to finish with no major hurdles or breakdowns.

Is it a painting that will win artistic awards? Not a chance. If you look at it up close you can see all the over paintings, bad brush strokes, and how I didn’t adequately get rid of the shine on the red parts, so it looks wildly different from the rest.  In some ways I am starting from scratch and having to remember how to do things, and I am not necessarily remembering very well. Which, fair. Three major household medical things in less than 9 months does not inspire creativity.

But.

It makes me SO HAPPY. I did a thing, start to finish, with my brain mostly working the entire time AND it’s a happy little painting. Or at least it makes me smile when I look at it, which is close enough for me.

I take 80 million pictures of frogs when I see them, but I rarely paint them. But now I have two frogs in my square series (in very different styles) and I like both of them. Here is the other, in case you missed it-the blog post for that one has the picture of the eggs that look like Kermit.

There are going to be some botanical paintings in the near future, but for now I am still working on my square series. Retraining my brain is the official excuse. The real reason is that I apparently went a little overboard when I went shopping and have several blank square canvases left. Sitting in my studio space. Staring at me in judgement. The 20”x20” ones are not so bad, but in a fit of enthusiasm I bought one that was three feet by three feet and I have no idea what to do with it. I would hide it in another room, but construction continues and there isn’t another safe place to put it.

Also, this frog was living at Bergeson Nursery in Fertile, MN. We go every year. I take pictures and push the cart and my friend buys all the happy things and it’s a lovely time. If you have the chance, you should totally go.