A PAINTING AND THE PANDEMIC...

Do you ever think
 how your world will be 
after The Pandemic?

 I wonder 
if I will feel funny hugging anybody, 
I wonder
 if the great little shops in my town 
will survive,
 I wonder 
how it will feel buying my own groceries, and
 I wonder
 if I will ever take anything
 for granted again. 

To all these questions I say,
 I hope not.

While I am 
looking out my kitchen window now,
 I sense a beautiful spring day 
that has the sweet scent of roses 
in the air. 
 That is as it always is 
this time of year,
 but even so,
 we now know
 how swiftly some things
 can change.

 My guess is 
that, no matter,
 how large or small 
those changes may be 
the acceptance 
  will be up to us, 
 as individuals.

Many of you will remember
 I ordered a paint by number kit 
of the Cottage. 
 I painted it rather quickly and
 enjoyed doing it.
  When I saw another
 paint by number company on Pinterest, 
I ordered two others. 
 I was very excited and
 couldn't wait to start on one.
  This was sometime last summer, and 
I did post about it,
 but I was quickly disappointed 
as all the lines and numbers 
were too small for me to see clearly. 
 I did a very small section and 
realized I couldn't stay in the lines,
 so I put it away. 

 I painted the Santa's at Christmas and 
tried my hand at watercolors,
 but I find them frustrating and 
not easily manageable for me. 
 In the meantime 
we acquired a lighted magnifier glass,
 so I decided to tackle 
the paint by numbers kit again.

 During this time
 of quarantine,
 we can't have
 idle hands.

I had painted
 the sunflower
 on my first go-round and
 when I opened the little paints 
I found them to be 
full of thick chunks 
with some even dried up. 
 Now I could see them but 
had no paint. 
 I took each color and 
matched them as closely as I could
 to my acrylic craft paints. 
 They are not a perfect match 
but good enough 
in my estimation.

This is the first sunflower 
using the paints from the kit...

...this is what that same sunflower
 looks like now 
that I painted my own mix over it. 
 A subtle difference and 
I found that the
 acrylics have
 better coverage.

I even took some liberties and 
painted what should have been 
stalks of wheat and 
turned them into 
butterfly bush flowers.

I am looking forward 
to finishing this painting and 
so far
 I'm quite pleased with 
the way it is 
turning out.

This is a screen shot 
that I took off of the company's website.
  This is what the painting 
should look like. 
 I can do a little tweaking 
after it is finished 
to make some parts
 stand out over others, 
but as I see it so far,
 there is a slight difference, 
but is it a 
good difference or a bad difference? 
 I think it is
 neither.

Under the circumstances, 
I did with it
 the best that I could, and 
that is all 
we can ever do.

 While things may be different
 after this pandemic is all over, 
we can hope that
 we can make the best of
 whatever changes there may be, 
good or bad.

 We go about life 
doing the best that we can and 
if that best is 
a little different at times,
 whether in a painting or a pandemic, 
we will survive.

I will keep you informed 
as to the painting's progress and
 give you all the particulars 
at a later date.

Stay safe and stay well...

...Judy...

When life
 gives you lemons,
 use acrylics
 instead.

Sharing today with:

Love Your Creativity at Life and Linda

and

Keep In Touch at Let's Add Sprinkles