Be Present

I wanted to pop in today with a little update on my artist endeavors.  I was thinking of my plan today and realized it makes perfect sense to me but not a bit of sense at all to the rest of the world since it's all stuck in my head.   

 My goal currently is to make between 15-20 canvases total.  I'm about halfway there.  After that I want to find the best local scanner possible and have them scan my art in so that I can print them at home and sell artists prints of the canvases.  I'll also have a few originals for sale as well. 

Then I will open a shop online (I'm not sure which venue I'll use yet) and customers will be able to purchase prints of my work or originals.  

I probably don't necessarily need that many canvases to start out with but I'd like to have a nice variety for people to see what my style is.  After I get into the swing of things with running a shop, scanning, and printing I'm sure I'll be adding new prints and canvases a bit more frequently to the shop.  Right now there's just so much to learn and I have a very full life outside of my art!  Which is what inspires my art so it's all full circle.  

The art above is my newest canvas! I loved how this one turned out because I could picture it in my mind before I started and the final result matched my mind's eye.  I love it when that happens.  I also like the message of being present.  Looking back generally doesn't serve us well.  Worrying about the future wastes today.  Be present right now.

I'm looking forward to painting the girls' playhouse soon! I'm going to start with the floor and paint it as if it were a big canvas.  Not anything too crazy, but I'll definitely be layering some floral designs on the floor.  

The dogwoods sure have been cheerful this spring. They're like a waving white flag, singing of hope.  I've enjoyed decorating the table with them. 

Our farm is such a huge part of my art and life inspiration.  Last night Brett and I sat out on the playhouse deck after the girls were asleep, talking about the garden and canning.  The farm life is a big responsibility and I'm sure we could find ourselves with enormous amounts of free time if we didn't pursue this lifestyle.  But this lifestyle is so, so, so worth it.  It's rich as it can be. 

A little work in progress mess I captured one day that I think is just beautiful.  It leaves a sign that life happened here.

Speaking of life, I wanted something a bit more lively for the front porch, other than the hanging ferns.  Which are nice and sensible and we may end up getting some later on in the season.  But the day we were at the nursery these just spoke to me.  Ferns seemed like picking vanilla flavor when these gorgeous strawberry/raspberry flavored looking ones just sang out, wanting to come live in the country.  

I'm so thankful for the many sights, sounds, tastes, opportunities, ministries, art forms, and ways there are to be present this spring.  It's not a laid-back life we live but friends, it is a blessed one.  Not easy, but rewarding.  Not blessed because of material possessions, but blessed because I wake up knowing Jesus loves me tremendously, and I fall asleep still knowing the same.  He's a dream-maker, world-changer, rescuer.  

Be present today.