A Painting a Day - Day 37

Like yesterday, I am painting a subject I have not ever attempted before. Opossums are strange little animals, sometimes not so little. When I was growing up, I lived on a farm far from town. There was plenty of wildlife. On any given evening a driver might come across a deer or raccoon or fox or opossum wandering across a rural road. For the animal's sake as well as maintaining the condition of one's car, you saw them in time to slow down and even stop to allow them to get out of the way. I remember I always cringed when I saw an opossum. They gave me the creeps! Like a giant rat with a weird white head that seemed too skull-like.

I took this animal on as a subject because I am now taking requests and someone who purchased one of my earlier paintings suggested I paint an opossum. So, as I often do, I turned to Google for reference pictures. Seeing the creatures through the eyes of a sympathetic photographer they actually do have a kind of beauty to them. And they are cute with their babies on their backs!

So everything needs a chance to be looked at a second time. All of God's creatures have some beauty to them.

I did enjoy painting this. I experimented with wetting the paper and allowing colors to blend and push against each other. The foliage especially turned out well using this technique.

Painting #37, which is 8 x 10, is available for sale for $37. If you are interested in purchasing it, please email me at lauraparkhurstillustrator@gmail.com. The first person I hear from can buy it. Thanks for coming to see my art and read my blog. It is humbling to know so many people are enjoying my art work everyday. I am so glad I can give that to people.