Happy New Year - and a new painting

Happy New Year!! I know I'm slow. Guests and a flurry of activities over the holidays had me hit the pause button on the blog for a bit. We had a great Christmas! I challenged our family to give hand made gifts, and one of my boys really took me up on that! I'll share what he did in another post soon.

Right as the new year rolled in, I had a commissioned painting to finish. A friend wanted to surprise his wife with a lettered and illustrated quote. I love working on these surprise gifts - I like to make it extra special and think about including details that the recipient would love.

Here's the finished product:

(I'm convinced every house should have a turquoise wall - it makes every piece of art I hang on it look fantastic!)

I used thinned down acrylics for the lettering. Bouncy, quirky letters are so much fun to make. There are endless options for curliques and loops to dress it up. 

And my daughter thought I should have a picture of myself with the painting, ha. I admit, I love how this turned out and had a hard time parting with it!

The verse is from a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson:

YOUTH AND LOVE - I

ONCE only by the garden gate

Our lips we joined and parted.

I must fulfil an empty fate

And travel the uncharted.




Hail and farewell! I must arise,

Leave here the fatted cattle,

And paint on foreign lands and skies

My Odyssey of battle.




The untented Kosmos my abode,

I pass, a wilful stranger:

My mistress still the open road

And the bright eyes of danger.




Come ill or well, the cross, the crown,

The rainbow or the thunder,

I fling my soul and body down

For God to plow them under.