Happy 2019! New Year. New Beginning.

Today a barberry candle is scenting the house with it's sweet, pine-like fragrance in remembrance of past family traditions. Scent is so often linked to memory. I close my eyes and can see the dining room of THE BIG HOUSE with its worn linoleum floor, peeling wallpaper and pink-painted cabinets. Memories both good and bad.

So many people make resolutions at this time of new beginnings. To lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, get right with God...

To that end, this year I'm going to practice kindness until I get it right. Including being kind to myself. 

On other matters...

This is a painting begun Easter of 2014. I was happy with the hills, barn and foreground. However, the apple trees were not good - to say the least. I walked away from it for a couple years.

When I came back to it, I added fall foliage to the hills in the background and goldenrod and Queen Anne's Lace to the foreground. Then I walked away from it for a couple years. 

Was watching watercolor tutorials on YouTube and finally decided how to finish the painting so the apple trees look real. Started roughing in the general shapes a couple weeks before Christmas and work on it a bit at a time. Although the painting is far from finished, it finally looks more like what I had in mind from the beginning.  What do you think?