double ta-dah.

2.3.11
 

Just finished the saguaro painting to replace the one we gave my parents last week. It's not exactly the same, but quite close, and I like it.  The photo isn't the best because I didn't have very good lighting, but you can still get the idea. 

The new Saguaro painting I just completed today.  :)

 

I've had the fantastical painting (below) in the works for about a month and had a major mental block as to what to do with it once I had the water, sky & sea serpent painted.  Today after finishing the saguaro painting, I felt sort of energized by the whole thing and still had paint on my "palettes" (see below), so I thought I'd tackle the painting I'd been stuck on.  

After picking the kids' brains, this is what I came up with.  I'm pretty happy with it, but it was such a mental stretch for me that I don't think this will be my new genre of art!  :)

What do you think?  Sea serpent  & bird designed by two of our very creative boys, the "J brothers", and the ship was inspired by an illustration of the Dawn Treader from one of our Chronicles of Narnia books.  I added the sun today because it just wanted to be there.

Yesterday I came up with this new system for storing my paint & brushes.  The ice cream pail is a bit flimsy to carry by the handle, but it sure is handy that I can just reach in and get the color I need without having to search for it.  See my "palettes" in front of it?  They're ice cream pail lids, and the paint washes off really easily.  I'm not sure what kind of palette I want to buy, so in the meantime I'll use these.  Plus I don't have to spend money on them!  :)