Tree Hugger Painting

I admit I have (at least) a couple of self-imposed hang-ups when it comes to painting.  One is that I find a white canvas uninspiring and the second is that I hate to waste paint.  So after I complete a painting project I satisfy both problems by using left over paint to awaken a blank white canvas that will be used for a future project.  I may do this once or multiple times before a canvas is chosen for its "real" job.

This painting called "Tree Hugger" was born through my waste-not process.  The background colors were layered smears of leftover paint from several other projects.  I also used it to test colors as I worked on another canvas.  It lay on the side table waiting to collect more dregs when I happened to have some extra brown mixed at the end of a dog portrait.

Inspired by the wild array of colors I used the brown to paint one of my regular activities - tree hugging.  I have been practicing animal communication for over a year now and discovered that it is also fun and easy to talk to the trees.  Turns out they are very wise.  I chose one tree I pass on my daily walks with my dogs to be my regular counselor.  It's a young ash tree - no different than the hundreds of others on our property.  It isn't as big as the tree in this painting, but I hug it anyway.  Trees have great energy.  I read this article the other day that confirms what I already felt - Trees Can Heal You.  If you haven't hugged a tree lately (or ever), I highly recommend it.

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse at my painting process.  I kind of like this little ditty.  It will likely inspire a future rendition and that is always fun.  Not a bad way to use left over paint and a blank white canvas.

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