I have seriously missed having a creative outlet by painting and crafting. Living in a small home, I really don’t have the space to spread out, set up my supplies and work on a project that will take me several days. Any craft or artwork I have done in the last few years have been done in one sitting. I haven’t painted on a canvas in years, though.
Motivation and Inspiration can come in many forms. My friend Linda, over at Creative Artworks Blog who has been blogging about why we need to be creative and how important it is to find time every day to work on some sort of artwork, shared the above meme.
Now, I am not quite ready yet to dig out my paint supplies. I’m almost afraid to, because the paints are pretty old and may all need to be replaced. But I did find my little photo album with pictures of my artwork from years ago.
I took pictures of the pictures in the album so I could share them here, so the quality isn’t great. I sold all but a couple of the pieces, back when I was painting full time. I don’t have the natural talent that my Mom, a son and a Great Aunt had, so I am especially proud that people actually wanted to buy them.
Here are three of my paintings…..
I painted 6 canvases for Hubby the first Christmas after we got married almost 20 years ago. I had dabbled in painting a very long time before then with my mother when my youngest was a baby, but I really didn’t have the time, energy or money to do much with it. After I married the love of my life, I was able to take some time off working and started painting again to kill the time during his long work days. He was my biggest fan, so with his encouragement, my skills improved.
We had just bought our property which was just a huge hayfield and we weren’t sure what we wanted to do with it. This was my dream at that time on canvas.
We spent a few years in Florida working. Being from the midwest, I was in awe of everything in Florida! I took tons of photos for painting ideas. I also found a book about the Florida Highwaymen, a group of 26 black artists who could whip out Florida landscape paintings like crazy, which they sold out of their car trunks. I think I read somewhere that they painted and sold over 200,000 paintings during the 1950s into the 1980s.
I tried to replicate a few of them. These two painting were probably inspired by pictures in the book. Without any formal training, I taught myself to paint by copying details I found in painting I liked.
One of the perks of working on the road, is seeing the beautiful landscapes in different regions across the country.
I hope to get back to painting soon. Until I finish new artwork, I will share some of my other pieces once in awhile.
Haphazard Homemaker 
You need to dust off those brushes. Fun paintings from the past.
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Thank you! That’s so nice of you to say. 🙂
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I know now where to donate some of my ‘extra’ art supplies! I love “Morning In The Everglades”!!! And I agree with Tim, quit cleaning, start painting woman 🙂
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Yes, Ma’am! 🙂 Thank you!
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I am familiar with the Florida Highwaymen! What part of Florida were you located in? Did you work involve art? You definitely have a talent in this area.
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Thank you! 🙂 I was in awe of their talent! I bought a book that had about 60 full color pictures of their paintings.Hubby worked construction in Bartow and Lakeland, maybe 12 or 14 years ago. We were there over a year. There was a flea market east of Bartow, where I rented a booth and sold paintings and art furniture. I loved the Bartow and Winter Haven area!
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Oh, the Lakeland area is growing very rapidly. There is a new bakery there that I want to visit. Born and Bread bakery which is a independent bakery. The area is full of mom and pop stores. I agree: I might have been to that flea market!
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What kind of job did you have in Florida?
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Holy cow those are wonderful! Get painting!
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Thank you, Diane! 🙂
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ONE OF MANY BEAUTIFUL PAINTING
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These are beautiful! I love the Farm Dreams. 🙂
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Thank you so much, Michelle!
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I can relate…I haven’t painted anything in about two years. There was a time that I was cranking out 1 or 2 decent paintings a week. I need to make time for painting again.
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Yes you should! I bought a few small canvases and a few bottles of new paint yesterday to start playing with. Now I have to remember where I put my brushes. 🙂
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I like to stretch my own canvasses. I paint on a large scale and I sometimes enjoy making the canvas more than I enjoy the painting. Weird, but that’s me. I hope you find your brushes!
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Looking forward to seeing what you paint on those small canvases.
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You have a gift! I can see why you want to get back to painting regularly. I’ll look forward to seeing what you create.
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Thank you so much for your kind words! 🙂
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I too love the farm scene. It’s almost whimsical, certainly catches the idea of a dream world. Hat’s off to you for making the effort to even drag the old photos out — so much of what I want access to is buried and I need to resurrect it all just the same, then maybe proceed in a positive way as you are doing. One step at a time. Clearly you have talent and clearly painting brings you joy — two very good reasons to keep going with it. Also Bravo to your husband for being such a good cheerleader. 🙂
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 🙂
We’ve been slowly working on unearthing “buried treasures”, either acquired while living and working out of state, or stuff removed and stashed in the nether-regions of a couple of sheds when we were feeling crowded in our small home.
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