Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Hello!

Most of us are all busy being socially distant while still working from home.

While wanting to take a walk or run, the dang wind the past couple of days,

like the pandemic as held me captive to my living quarters.

This is definitely spring weather, not knowing if it wants to be winter

or somewhere in-between spring.

Most days it’s wild rags, ball caps and snow pants.

All of which changes minute by minute especially the weather!

With the pandemic news dominating most of our thoughts these days it is very easy to fall into dark thinking.

All of which we should avoid!

We need lots of distractions right now, and one of those is hopefulness!

It is as much a requirement as sunshine and rain to seed.

We are required to be socially distant from friends and family and to stay

hunkered down waiting for this virus to go away.

I often miss my social gatherings (brandings and team roping) with family and friends.

However, I am very grateful to be living in a small town.

Once this is over it will be easy to find each other.

While trying to keep myself occupied, positive, and self isolated,

finding a “How to Paint Lavender” on Pinterest from the blogger, Feeling Nifty, I applied her technique (somewhat modified) to a rusty bucket.

I took out this old junkin’ bucket and tried my hand at painting some lavender flowers.

 

Want to Learn to Paint Flowers?

Lavender flowers to be exact.

For how to paint the lavender flowers go to:

https://feelingnifty.com/how-to-paint-lavender-acrylics/

I knew that if I botched the bucket too much…

from the dump it came, to the dump it could return.;)

A true “rustic” treasure! It once had a bottom.

Now it has plenty spots of rusted out and decay.

 

 

 I call it a painted can of hopefulness.

Hopefully I can do this!

See…I haven’t always been an optimistic person.

However, that optimism has developed over this past year through a process of design and learning how best to manage my situations.

Mostly through prayer.

Because I don’t know what some of you may think, I know I can’t do it alone.

I constantly remind myself of my New Year’s Resolution, which is to live intentionally.

 

 

Intentionally to be positive. So I put forth some effort into being creative.;)

 

 

Lavender is a super simple flower to paint which makes it perfect for a beginner,

and Feeling Nifty has a great beginners guide.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect. I say it’s perfectly imperfect!

I guess it’s the beauty with abstract painting.

You can leave the stress of perfection behind.

Lord knows my bucket is far from perfect!

In fact it brings to mind
a song about “My Bucket Has A Hole In It.”

 

 

The first step is creating stems for the lavender.

I used the recommended different tints of green for the stems to give more dimension.

 

The second step is to apply the lavender paint using a Q-tip.

Using the Q-tip, dab the paint and start dotting it around some stems

to form the petals of the lavender flower.

 

Once dry, I added the darker purple color over the pale lavender to add dimension.

 

Again, once all of this was dry,

I added dabs of white paint to create highlights on the petals.

I used paint colors I had on hand.

 

My last and final step was to spray a clear acrylic to seal it.

For a great step by step, please see the tutorial at Feeling Nifty.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Some wild west stylin’ for some wild west livin’.