Saturday Free Hand Stress Relief

It’s been several days since I have had the opportunity to stamp, paint or post to my blog.  Work has been quite busy and I just haven’t had the energy when I get home in the evenings. I’m glad to have the opportunity to play today.

I attended a lovely dinner party last Saturday night at the home of one of the physicians that I work with. We were honoring two physicians that are finishing up their year long fellowship program at the hospital where I work.  I wanted to hand paint my thank you card for the hosts and capture a simple version of the gorgeous sunset lake and trees view from their back patio. I’ve gone back and forth on whether it is a good enough painting to send someone and whether it is presumptuous that they would even like it.  But I decided it is a simple little thank you “gift from my heart” and it really is the thought that counts.

In reality their boardwalk is very long and goes way out into the lake. The dock is large and houses their boat. I didn’t think I needed to include those things and simplified the scene quite a bit. I could in no way capture the way the water looked with the sun spreading gorgeous yellow light everywhere but I did give it my best shot.

I painted water on a piece of watercolor paper to prepare it to accept the paint.  I then painted  Aqua, Lemonade and Lake Mist reinker to create the sky and water line. I mixed watercolors to create greens, yellows and browns and started painting, dabbing and holding my tongue just right to create my scene. I wanted to show the great Florida oaks that are around on the property and that shade the water’s edge. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Some of the paint spread a little under the mask that I used to frame in the scene but I don’t think it matters much.  Painting this was a wonderful stress release after a long week of work.  Nothing seems to work as well to relax the neck muscles as getting my hands covered with paint and ink.

I hope you enjoy your weekend.  I sure plan to.