I love the end of the year. I have my birthday in Nov, then Thanksgiving, then Xmas. This year, we get an extra bonus, we get to go home (Singapore) to see family. I feel contented. While it’s been a year of ups and downs, I am happy with where I am. It’s not perfect but it’s a good life. I feel grounded. Grounded in the love around me, grounded in the love I am learning to give myself, grounded in the knowledge that I am strong, I am centered I am peaceful.

Mixed media piece with acrylic paint, pastel, collage, stencil with modeling paste.

I find backgrounds to be the most challenging. Here is an example. I painted my girl and was pretty happy with how she turned out. Then I added a soft background. The first picture.

Felt something was missing so I added dots, and then stencil , gesso, text, doodle, etc. As I take a step back I wondered if I overworked the background. Looking back at the starting point, I miss the softness and simplicity. I do like how vibrant the second piece turned out but wondered if I overworked it. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is walk away and not mess with a good thing. What do you think?