Painting just for fun

I had a good time working on an oil painting last night. I have had the urge to push some paint around with a brush for a while. (I have not done much oil painting but I like the buttery feel of the paint). All of my felting things got put away for Thanksgiving so that we could use the dining room AS a dining room. And with Christmas coming so soon after I just didn't do any felting until January. Well, I can't go that long without doing something creative. My daughter wanted to paint some glass ornaments for the tree. She and I had a great time laughing and creating some nice and some tacky things using glass Christmas balls from Goodwill, paint, glue, tissue paper, and GLITTER (which she calls the herpes of craft matterial because you never really get rid of it once it breaks out). I got a little too into doing decoupage with the tissue paper so I did some boxes.

We were able to do these in the space I have been making into a studio down in the basement. I needed a place to do my dyeing which I had been doing outdoors. I also wanted a space where I did not have to worry about the mess I make. It is not done yet but it was nice enough that I retrieved my easel out of storage and started a painting. It was a mess almost as bad as this...

(note the coveted felting...um...ping-pong table under all that stuff)

...and now looks kind of like this. This is the first time ever I have had a place where ALL my art materials can be easily accessible AND can be left out for however long I want. Here is the painting when I started it.



and this is how it looks after last night. I am learning a lot. One thing I am learning it that I don't really want to learn any more about oil painting at this point. I still like felting better.