Friday's Special Moment of Gratitude

The pastel above started my painting journey for the week.  The artists who are participating in Summer of Color chose citron green and turquoise as the two colors that are to be used in our work this week.. They are two of my favorite colors and I use them in most of my paintings so I was excited to get started. I loved the colors in this painting but I definitely did not feel like the painting was finished.  My next attempt at completing the painting was to add grass or weeds to the foreground and it looked like this:

It drove me crazy that the weeds on the left were leaning to the right while the weeds on the right were standing straight up.  So I changed the painting again.  I am starting to have the confidence to change things that I don't like about my paintings.  In the past I was always afraid I would make the painting worse so I would leave it alone even if there were things that I did not like. But my confidence is growing and hopefully my skills will follow along. 

I am happy with the final version of my painting because it represents a tiny step forward on my artistic journey.  I am learning to see what I want to change and then I take the steps necessary to make those changes. Making a change, whether in life or in a painting, is not always easy.  It takes time, it take patience, and it takes confidence.  I have the time, I have the patience, and I am building the confidence.  For that I am very grateful this week.

As many of you know each Friday I share what I am grateful for during the week.  Yesterday I found this quote and I thought you might enjoy it as much as I did.  

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense out of the past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.  
                                                              Melody Beattie, author, from Gratitude:  Affirming the Good Things in Life

Have a great weekend filled with lots and lots of special moments.

               When you share your dreams and talent with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin today!
                                                                                                                                            Ginny

                                Please be sure to visit the artists at Paint Party Friday.  You will be so glad that you did.