"Warmed By Joy"

I have this problem of wanting to draw or paint something, but not really having any ideas. I looked through a lot of books and magazines I had, but couldn't really decide on anything. I spent quite awhile trying to draw a still life based on the stuff on my front porch by the door. There is a (broken) chair propped in the corner, and there is a tall, gothic-style, decorative, slate-blue-and-maroon birdhouse setting on it. Then, between the wooden porch rails, you could see the green of the bushes along the front of the house, and then there was the grey siding and the maroon shutters. So I liked that combination (it IS my porch...), and it just wasn't coming out right. I thought at the time. It looked okay to me later, but you know how that goes. I tried to add some color with pastels, but decided I would not try to paint it. Later that night I went to Walmart while I waited for my son to get off work, and I bought a copy of Essence magazine, because there was an illustration in there I thought I would shamelessly try to copy.

I did not copy it exactly, but a lot of the elements from the magazine illustration ended up in the painting. The drawing I did actually looks better than the painting turned out, but it looks okay for the first one. My 17 year old son made a fuss over it, so if I can impress a 17 year old boy, I guess it was allright.

After I got the drawing on the canvas, I just sat and looked at it, too scared to even start painting! I have not done this in so long. I had to take a deep breath, and write a friend for support, then look at it a little longer before I could actually open the paint and start doing it. I saved the woman for last, and of course I messed her all up. She has an extremely fat head and a rather long chin. She does not look quite as happy as she did in the drawing. In the drawing she looked like the sun was shining down on her and she was just really enjoying the setting. She also did not have any clothes, but that was okay since she didn't have a body. I really like how the dress turned out. That dark red is my favorite color, and then I also like purple. My son asked what the purple thing was supposed to be. I said it was supposed to look like half of a doorway, but then the flowing part on the bottom reminded me of a waterfall. He wanted to know why it was purple, so I told him it was because I like purple! Does there have to be any other reason?

So anyway, if I can get it to work, I am unveiling my first (in a long time), slightly plagiarized painting, entitled "Warmed by Joy".