Eeeeep! I love the process...

I've been keeping this Italian village painting a secret, because it was commissioned for a gift.  It was given to the recipient last Saturday as an early Christmas present so now I can "spill the beans."  The majority of commissions I receive are for gifts.  It makes creating the art SO much fun, as if it wasn't fun enough already. 

In any case, two of my dear friends went to Italy this past year, and asked me to create a painting of one of the villages they stayed at. We chose this charming, in the mountains and on the water, town of Riomaggiore.  It is 24 X 36 inches on gallery wrapped canvas.  I know you've seen gallery wrapped canvas before - it's when the edges are thick and the artist also paints the scene on the edges of the canvas.  You don't need a frame because the image goes all the way around. 

This was such an amazing learning experience for me.  I thought it might be fun to share the process with you. 

I can't tell you how often I hear from people "I can't draw" "I can't do art", etc.  I understand we all have our strengths, but at the same time, I've noticed that art is a lot about perseverance.  There's a lot of "pushing through"; pushing the materials,  pushing through one's own negative judgments about how the work is turning out, and pushing through one's desire to give up at some points.  There were many times during this process that I thought I had messed it all up.  Or even just in the beginning I thought, how in the world is this going to look anything like what I want it to look like?

There are often many layers to a painting or any work of art, just as there are to any human.  There are messy parts and there are beautiful parts - that's what makes  a work of art.