Last Wednesday my paints were on my desk, after asking the equally Lovely Denise, (The Lovely Laura’s mum) if she would consider swapping one of my “paintings” for some en-trend and de rigueur crochet cushion covers! Well, they were making me feel a little nervous and a touch panicky, I hate leaving things to the last minute, and although I had a December deadline in my head for completion, I knew I would feel much better if it was done sooner rather than later and my side of the deal/promise kept. So on Saturday amid much trepidation I got started!
The first thing I did was look for a bit of inspiration, in my head I had English country garden, but then ….. I got very side tracked when I found some paintings/prints by Heather Galler ….. oh my, I just love her style!
This painting lark is all so new to me and I think I may have cheated, because I noticed on my very first canvas, now hanging in the dining room that all my flowers were a little squiffy and on the lopsided side, so I decided to use templates, well, a pile of plates and cups and containers to get my circles round!!!!
Another new addition in this picture was going to be a few birds ….. but I cheated again and made another template!!! I guess I just paint like a crafter and old habits die hard!!
Once all the basics were sketched out I began to fill in, starting with the leaves, and then adding one colour at a time. 
And this is when I started getting panicky again ….. I do love a black outline, I tried to resist but I couldn’t ……. it just confirms what I see in my mind’s eye, a couple of outlines and I am happy to see that I am going in the right direction. This is only my third canvas ….. it measures 46ins x 35ins, so obviously I like to work big!!! However, I am now going to resist any further outlining until the canvas is completely painted (famous last words I know) because I want to keep them crisp. On my first canvas I added the details in layers of colour and that sort of diluted the lines until they look quite grey and not fresh as I would have liked.
I am also not sure that acrylics really are the way to go for me either …….but there again I don’t really have a clue about paint in the first place. I don’t find that they layer quite as well as I would like (I want to mat and layer in my painting!) …. I really am the blind, leading the blind …. so if anyone has any tips.
Anyway it’s all a great experiment, and I will see how I go, so watch this space!!!
