I had no idea painting and creation could be like this.

This 40x40 canvas has been hanging around my house waiting to be marked up for quite some time. I haven't had the time to do anything with it though (when I bought it) I had some inspiration for it and even though it was quite some coin to buy it, I knew I was supposed to do it. (I did manage to save some money though with a 40% discount coupon from Michael's and my teacher's discount.) 

When my students came over to my house to have a painting/art party for my one student's 18th birthday celebration, it seemed like a good idea to finally do something with and to this giant blank canvas. My original goal was to paint this instagram snap of the sunrise taken one morning right outside my house weeks ago...

Amazing, no? Instagram is such a guilty pleasure of mine. 

I was debating between the above and another sort of similar picture but my husband convinced me that the above was a much better inspiration to draw from. (The other one I was considering is pictured HERE in this blog posting.)

Anyway, I blocked out my painting with the Portfolio brand oil pastels I love so much and talk so much about...

  

And then I went in on top of that with an open palette of colors in Gamblin brand oil paints that I bought (also way too long ago and have been sitting waiting for me to open up) paired with Liquin and natural Turpenoid.

I worked on it probably less than three hours when I finally stopped/quit for lunch and I was content enough with it. It wasn't stressing me out at least. I took my students and my daughter to lunch for a VN feast of Pho Tai, Goi Cuon, Ca Kho To, Sung Sa Hat Lua, Banh Mi, and a Vietnamese style birthday cake. We ended up being out and about for most of the day and I didn't get home until right before dinner time. This is where I stopped before the lunch break...

When I came home, I contemplated not working on it but then ended up stepping back into putting more color down because my daughter was happily playing by herself and I wanted to get some more layers of paint built so that I could work wet on wet if I wanted to.  

Then right before my husband arrived home from work, I had a moment where I just thought this to myself...  

"You know what? How about you just let go of your expectations a little bit and do what you are going to do because this is the first time you are back at the easel. The Lord will surely do a mighty work in you and with you and ON THIS PAINTING if you just let yourself loose a little bit. Paint what you feel and how you are inspired and not what you (think) you know. Let both divine inspiration  and the paint itself speak to you and then you do your best to respond with your brush to start a conversation (of sorts) so that your canvas/painting is saying something more than showing something."

And wouldn't you know it as soon as I had the above conversation with myself, I yielded something amazing that you can see a little bit of below. How gracious and provident is God. Man oh man. I had no idea I could or would ever paint like this. I know I am entering an entirely new phase as both a visual artist and a painter. I feel so incredibly blessed.  I have wanted to paint like this for as long as I have known paintings - both just admiring them as much as trying to paint myself.  

Tomorrow, I will share the finished piece with you. Yes. A finished oil painting on a 40x40 canvas was finished in less than a day by me - the painter who (in the past) has taken up to 10 months to finish one piece that is half that size.