Last Saturday I participated in the local live painting event, Brush on the Bluff where I a really nice, but warm, Saturday. The day started off pretty much perfect, save my husband forgetting my chair in our living room and having to borrow one from the scarcely available stock The Botanical Alchemists so graciously provided. I had spent most of the week analyzing my artistic prey so I knew exactly where I wanted to set up and where I would get the most amount of shade for the most amount of time. The weather report was definitely reporting heat and sun and so I went out of my way to avoid all heat and sun.

I made the sketch during the week and came with a full bag of pens and my tray of watercolors and set out to draw the most epic Ponderosa ever! I named it Filbert and after I trimmed it down we were off to the races, drawing wise.

I got about an hour’s worth of work done before the event began. After that I spent most of the day talking and making friends with every dog I could until the day was over (shout out to Stella). I didn’t draw as much as I wanted… but I made some solidly cool new friends. Aaaaaaaaaand I don’t have IG anymore so… you will all just have to use your imagination as to how the event looked (does anyone really need to see my bright red face again anyway?).

So, long story made shorter, I ended up working on this tree every day, 10-12 hours each day, until about 2 hours ago. My simple little Filbert… turned into a massive giant of a MISTAKE. Yay for art but boo for my body!

So every bottle brush has its own stick… and every stick has to attach to the larger branches or directly to the trunk. But that means I had to keep track of every bottle brush and stick on a fairly large piece of paper and not make any mistakes for fear of ruining the entire thing. Just drawing Filbert took over 40 hours.

Don’t believe me? Color it yourself by downloading the free coloring page I made here (thank goodness for scanners and the people that pay for them).

Sometime on Tuesday I was able to start painting but the painting was due Wednesday at 4pm…. immediately I knew I was in trouble and my deadline was going to need an extension which, for me, means panic and not a lot of sleep. If you can’t already tell from my plain and boring language…. I’m running on empty.

Thankfully my community is patient and incredibly understanding and helped me take my failings in stride. I spent most of the day, night and morning frantically painting every needle and stick and eventually… around 11am… I got there. I climbed the entire tree.

So now I’m just chillin’…. barely awake… on the couch next to my kiddo (and about to take over the Switch to tend my crops on Animal Crossing). Trying to do some last minute damage control for being late and not being able to do a massive post about turning my artwork in or getting my photos up on the auction page on time. Also my hands really really hurt…

IF you are reading this and thinking to yourself, “Self…. that’s a badass piece of art and I would like to own it.” It is currently up for auction here, Please go bid!

All proceeds get split between myself (yay food! and rent!) and my dear friends, The Botanical Alchemists and The Friends of the Bluff so we can run more fun art events like Brush on the Bluff.

And make sure to check out some of the other wonderful art up for auction, maybe you’ll find your next favorite piece!

All my love, Happy Thursday friends!