MY NEW PROJECT plus the usual fixes of other paintings

It's just time to begin a new painting.  I've been fooling around with the markers-just like I did with mosaics-but there comes a time when I realize that I'm neglecting my biggest talent and that is painting.

"Julie - Kauai 10th Anniversary"  Julie Jacobsen

But let me back up.  So for the last month I've been redoing some of my paintings.  I'm just one of those perfectionists and can't stop until I have things done satisfactory to myself.  So first I started out by repairing my mouth.  This is part of a set of 2 paintings that I did of my husband and I on our 10th wedding anniversary in Kauai.  We went for a hike on Makana Mountain-made famous in that it was superimposed out in the middle of the ocean to be the mysterious Bali Hai in the movie "South Pacific" .  I love that movie.  So when we started hiking the trail I had tears in my eyes.  We took pictures and years later I did these paintings.

"Chris - Kauai 10th Anniversary"  Julie Jacobsen

Then I had to fix a hand on another painting-which I'm not going to post because I don't like it that much-but I'm satisfied for it to go back on the shelf (see what a perfectionist I am!)

"Mackintosh Apples" Julie Jacobsen

In this painting I brightened the sky through the window in the upper right corner so it will say 'sky'.  I pushed back the yellow tile into the shadows more because the bright yellow was competing with the apples for attention.  I could still push them back into the shadows more but I think it dulls the painting.  This painting is only 5" x 7".  Very small and I'm not satisfied with the frame.  It's just a temporary one but I do like this painting.  It's very homey.

Now back to the original idea of what I'm starting.  There's nothing better to get me going than to have to do a wedding present for one of my nieces and nephews.  In this case it is for Ali.  Here are the first 2 steps:

Note:  I just finished a wonderful book called "Heaven is Here" by Stephanie Nielson.  She is the creator of nieniedialogues.com.  It is a wonderful true story about the plane crash she and her husband survived and their difficult recovery.  Reading about how she finally was able to get back to blogging I realized that I've neglected my blog.  She inspired me to be more consistent in posting.  I guess I just realized in the past that I could spend all my time blogging and not painting.  But I guess that's not really true because I waste time doing other things.  So I might as well start posting more.  I hope my readers will get something out of what I post.  Please let me know if you are interested in my postings as it really is fun for me to hear what you think.