Feelin' Artsy

I don't consider myself a very artsy person but occasionally I like to paint.  The first painting I did was about 7 years ago and it was big and bold and I was getting tired of it.  I just didn't like it any more and I had another painting that's been in my head for a few months waiting to get out.  Instead of using a new canvas, I decided to just paint over the old one that was bugging me. 

Several months ago, Julian fell in love with Mickey Mouse and one night, I decided to make him a Mickey Mouse painting for his room.  I did it very quickly and it was sloppy and the colors were off.  So I've also been wanting to redo this one. 

Things have been a little crazy with Brian gone and a lot of stuff has gone undone because I've just wanted to nap when Julian naps.  I finally decided that I needed to do something creative and get my mind off all the things that have been bugging me.  So naptime was a perfect time to paint. 

I've included the before and after shots.  I find the yellow painting to be much more calm and serene than the pink and brown stripes.

While I was painting, I noticed the photos I had hanging on the wall.  They were three black and white photos of waves and I liked them but they weren't anything special, I bought them at the store when I bought the frames.  It occurred to me that I've taken some beautiful photos of beaches that I really like and I could just change them to black and white and put them in the frames instead.  So I went on my computer and found three photos that I liked and changed them to sepia tone (it looked better than b & w), printed them out and replaced the store-bought photos.  It's my new goal to have the art/photos displayed in my home be meaningful to me.  I only have a few store-bought pieces left but I'll replace them slowly or just give them away when we move.  They're pretty large pieces and I don't want big blank spaces on my walls right now.