My Painting Process

 There's a local PBS show I watch

from time to time called Books & Company. 

The host of the show interviews a particular

author and inquires about his or her book 

and their personal process

of writing and developing their stories. 

I love hearing about the different ways

they go about it. 

I know many artists travel similar unique

paths to end up with their finished pieces. 

Those kinds of things fascinate me, whether

it be an artist of the word, paint brush, 

or musical instrument.

Today I'll briefly share one of the ways

I go about painting my pieces by

sharing some of my works in progress in

the earliest stages. 

I'm working on a dog house and another

picnic table. One's in my family room,

and the other's in the garage, so the pictures

aren't the greatest, (thanks to poor lighting)

 but you'll get the gist. 

Before I start any piece I pray. 

I ask God to bless the work of my hands

and to guide and lead me as I create the design

and paint the piece. I ask that it'll be a blessing

to whomever it ends up going to. 

After that, I don't worry about it how I'm going 

to proceed, I just start with one element and

let the design flow from there. 

I always use one color (usually a dark one)

to get my basic design down. 

This is what I call free hand folk art. 

I have had to be more precise in the past

with a design image, and in that case

I'll draw it out on transparencies and

use the overhead projector to complete 

the design that way. 

I did the base design in the following picture

and started in with my first color. 

That's what I usually do. Then I'll 

go back with one color at a time and

continually add to the design until it feels and 

looks done to me (which can take a while). 

My husband always says, when he's dizzy,

he knows I'm finished. 

I'll be sure to post the finished

pieces, (hopefully in better lighting)

so you can see how they turned out. 

Until then, may God bless the work of your hands. 

Terri