oh my... school's OUT?!?

Hello to all!

This past Sunday, our son graduated from high school.

13 years of public schooling - check.

Some kids love school. My son wasn't one of them.

He's like his mom -

doesn't do so well with boredom and routine and rules. ;-)

Ask me how proud we are.

So the past few weeks were filled with excitement

and last minute preparations for the big day.

Check out the cute graduation caps his friend made...

mini peanut butter cups & chocolate. 

Adorable and delicious.

then this beautiful sunrise

on my birthday a few days ago

then a little later on in the day,

these wispy clouds.

Isn't it lovely?

Looks like paint to me.

ok, so after all the excitement of this past week,
i realized i had painted very little.
Sometimes I think to myself:
"what the hell do I do with my time"?
and the answer is usually: READ.
I love books, but too much of a good thing
isn't necessarily good, is it?
I have to re-evaluate a few things in the coming months.
Notice I didn't say WEEKS because i know
i'll have to wean myself off books slowly -
just like a crack addict!
Oh, and for the record, I'd never stop reading completely.
I just need to slow down enough
to make room for other things.
Like writing my own damn book. 

So today is the last day for this week's theme
on Illustration Friday
and the theme is: SUMMER!

I first started with a bit of a collage (for the blue)
but quickly decided I would just use paint.
(acrylic on paper)

At first, I didn't really like it
but kept going anyway.
You just never know how something's gonna end up...

By this point, i was kinda ok with it.
The actual colour of the sand is more yellow than orange,
but you get it.

I had fun with the waves...
those are collage (pieces of paper I cut out of a magazine)
and then I added white lines & dots

I was just in the mood for something light,
something fun, cartoony.

I'm not a big "50 shades of grey" fan.
giggle...

And here's the finished painting of my uncle,
although I altered his look a little
so it wouldn't look exactly like him.
It's acrylic on canvas.
(he still doesn't know this one's going in a show next week!)
These pastries are a popular Acadian treat called
PETES DE SOEURS
translation: Nun farts
Honestly.
So delicious.

And here's another painting going in the show.
(you'll understand the scribble of paint in the corner in a second!)
These were old barns in a field a few miles from here.
I believe the barns have now crumbled to the ground.
I painted this years ago
and I must have been feeling blue when I painted it
because looking at this painting always depressed me.
There was something about the weak barns,
barely standing and
surrounded with so much blue
that just made it sad.
It's pretty big (something like 30 x 30 inches)
and I kept it out of sight for years.
Until I was asked if I was interested
in doing a show of my paintings on canvas.
When I began looking at my paintings
and found this one,

My 1st thought was:
why does this bother me so much?

and my 2nd thought:
why don't I change what bothers me?

It's my painting...
I can do whatever i want, right?

So I did this.

Changed the sky to yellow

and added little bits of yellow here and there in the ground,

to balance things off a bit.

Much better to me.

Some people may prefer the blue one (and that's ok!)

but to ME - this makes my heart happier. 

Making such a change to a big painting isn't easy.

I didn't know if it would make it better,

or kill it completely.

Sometimes, we keep ourselves from taking risks

because we're just so damn afraid of the outcome.

And really - think about it -

what's the WORST thing that could happen?

It would have been a bad painting.

That's it.

No one dies.

It's a painting,

and sometimes, taking that risk

and trusting your gut

is exactly what needs to be done.

The minute I put that little squiggle of yellow paint in the corner

I went with it.

Go big or go home.

And i'm glad I did.

And speaking of going big -

a double rainbow again!

Awesome twice.

;-)

And I'll never understand why someone like Nicki Minaj is known around the world, but this guy isn't... (oh right - she has boobs!)

Ron Sexsmith - one of my favourite songwriters ever...

Thanks for hanging out!

Keep painting!

xx