Roughly three years ago, I was heavily into the exciting world of Pinterest (still pretty active but as much as I used to be). There were all sorts of art pieces that included maps and outlines of countries, states, cities etc. Inspired, I sat down and painted a simplistic outline of California. It wasn’t a masterpiece but I liked it and decided I would like to add three more paintings to the set to represent each family member’s birthplace.
~You can see it peeking out from behind the basket~
This idea got put on the back burner when we made a huge move a short time later, but I always meant to revisit it. I kept making excuses, and honestly cost for paint and canvas was a concern at one point. If I am honest though, I mostly made excuses and did nothing about my desire to make my project complete; even after putting it on this list with the hope it would light a fire under me!
Fed up with my inactivity, I printed out a copy of my Thirty Before Thirty list so I had it handy. For Mother’s Day, my husband took me to purchase the tools I would need to create the four paintings that are on my to-do list with a nearing deadline. That same day I sat down and created the Florida painting and this afternoon I painted the outline I had traced of New York.
Again, they are nowhere near perfect. It’s a bit daunting knowing one wrong brush stroke can erase part of the shoreline or create new geography. I am pleased with them for the most part. I opted not to add the waves to the New York painting because I was not terribly fond of them in the first place but felt I needed to add them to Florida for consistency. I was unhappy with how they turned out once more, so I figured it was better to revisit that issue later. For now, they are done and they look pretty good on the mantel. I just need to add Ontario and I can check them all off!
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