This painting was the beginning of my sea life series. The process I undertook to create this painting was a large step forward in my artist journey. I was at an art retreat with a well known artist and 15 other amazing women artists. We did a journaling exercise before starting our paintings. Part of what came out of my journaling was that I needed to be more free/messier in my paintings initially instead of having a specific thing in mind and being detailed in the process. WELL! The beginning of this painting was very challenging and I was very frustrated. It looked messy! I struggled and struggled to “fix” what I thought was a big mistake and then BAM! My inner voice said, “Hello, Tamara? You said you needed to be messier and less detailed and to not think too much!” Ugh…..yea. I almost laughed out loud at myself! I probably would have if I hadn’t still been annoyed. So, I let go. I just kept going, putting on paint colors that delighted me and collaging with papers that I liked. As a group, we then did a quick exercise——our leader called out things like “drippies”, “dip your finger in paint and put it on your canvas in several places’, “use a texture tool”, “collage some paper”, etc. It was truly a MESS by the end of that exercise. We broke for lunch and when returning to the painting, I began the process of pulling things together. Some spray paint with stencils, large collage items, more paint, and the details (my favorite!) later and I had this beautiful painting of my favorite things—-the ocean and sea turtles! The original painting has rainbow fish netting along the bottom and several shells, sea glass, rocks, a feather and a few other significant items hanging from it—-like a dream catcher of sorts. It is one of my very favorite paintings thus far!! When I sent my 16 year old daughter (who is amazing by the way!) a picture of it that evening while I was still at the retreat she said, “Mom! That is like your whole heart and soul on a canvas!” There is no better compliment than that! With a sigh and tears in my eyes, I then went off to bed with so much peace in my heart

This print of the original painting has the words “Beach House” in the top seaweed and “Be courageous in LOVE and let your INTUITION guide you” which were the words I gleaned from my journaling before starting the painting process. If you would like a print without the words, there is an option for that.

This is a high quality print (professional photo paper with archival inks) of my original painting.  (See the various sizes available.)