"New Beginnings" This painting is finally done! It's amazing how I literally obsessed over this one. I couldn't wait to come home and work on it. I was amazed at every layer and how it was almost painting itself. Event the colors are not typical of what I normally use. Both of the substrates (cradle boards) started out with a muted gray background with a bright orange stencil over the top. I began adding layers of paint and paper. Then I figured out that I needed to put a Mama bird and a little bird's nest into the composition. I used stencils and molding paste to give it a raised texture. Added more paper, paint, and glass bead gel. In the time I was working on these, I thought about how our lives so quickly change. I remembered my kids when they were babies and now they have babies of their own. It's pretty incredible, the twists and turns our lives take and how fast time really goes. We never expect the