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I discovered what a great way to make folks feel loved and special AND practice painting all at once: PAINT them gifts!
And dirty little secret time: The middle one “Haybales” was done on recycled canvass I got at the local Goodwill store of a painting someone had started but never completed! It was a totally different style, so I gessoed over it and had a blank white canvas again!
The first one is also a sort of recyled one. It was done as an experiment using rubber cement as masking fluid before I ever bought any and with watered down acrylics, like in watercolor painting style. I hated it and it floated around the studio for a while until I took the brush and full strength paints to it, and really livened it up. It has special meaning to a lovely friend who lost her husband. She loves and collects hearts and we consider him a star in the sky. Get it?
The final painting is for another of my brothers. It’s a simpler style crest which looks identical to the one we had hanging in our house as we were growing up. I think he’s gonna love it!