My artistic yearnings

I wrote a bit a few months ago about abstract art, and how it is deceptively difficult to get it right. To quote my own self....

"Any fool can slap some paint on a canvas, but to make it look good is quite another thing."

Well, above you see the result of my arrogant artistic yearnings.  hahah.  I made this for my man-friend, who was looking for a bit of original art for his apartment, and probably also trying to provide a bit of an outlet for his cabin-fever-crazed lady.  I worked on this monster every day for a few hours, and every day he would come home from work to find a completely different painting. Seriously, there are like 7 paintings underneath, and a metric TON of paint.

Am I happy with the result?  Not entirely.  I'd like to do some more glazing, etc, but I am partially afraid of messing up what we have now.  Fear is not a useful quality in the creation process, I am learning. :)   I will say, it looks a heap better in real life, as opposed to in this picture taken with my Iphone in not-great-light.

And posting about it here is the first step I am taking to a new artistic challenge for 2013.... more visual art!  I want to really challenge myself to do a bit more painting, both large-scale abstract (like this) and the much more realistic style I do with my watercolors .... like these below...

Old Barn at the Faircloth Farm

Blue Crab in Gumbo

And then of course the dream is to become an overnight sensation on Etsy (my shop has a new name and a new look!)  and spend my days painting en pleine air in Provence and wear linen all the time.  Isn't that everyone's dream?   hahahah.

Happy Mardi Gras, yall.