Welcome to Sophie's Nature Art!

The picture I want to present to you today is a small painting. It was painted on acrylic paper within one day. As mentioned in the last postLavender fields in Tuscany, this picture was also taken in the hospital this spring. 

This year there were two weddings to which I had been invited. At the beginning of the year, I knew that I wanted to present the two couples with a self-painted picture each, but as already mentioned in the Contribution about the picture “Swan romance” I found it difficult to find suitable motifs. I toyed with the idea of painting a wedding couple in a romantic background. But there was one problem: I've never painted people before, only drawn them. That's why my firm resolution for my time in hospital was to practise painting people and see what happens. My first attempt in this direction is the picture I want to show you today. It is a Youtube-Tutorial by Angela Anderson. She has a huge selection of beautiful pictures on her channel. But this one caught my eye very early on. I painted this picture in hospital, completely contaminated by radiation. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get the proportions right or that I wouldn't be able to paint the dress. But it all went without a hitch. A grid that I had drawn in pencil beforehand helped with the proportions. With this and the great explanations from Angela Anderson, the picture was no problem at all. The only small challenge was the skin color. But after a few attempts at mixing, I found it too. And so this beautiful picture was created in just a few hours: 

One idea for a wedding motif was a forest with a couple walking hand in hand on the path. That's why I painted this one during my stay in hospital Image: 

Since I wanted to practice on people, I tried to bring this sketch into color. But the attempt failed miserably. All I could manage was a pink piggy face. So it was time for another one Tutorial by Angela Anderson, to get a bit of a feel for the parts of the face. This picture was much more challenging. It's not quite perfect, but it's okay for a first attempt. 

In the meantime, I had already been in hospital for two weeks and had been alone in my room for a week. I had no one to talk to and was only allowed to get some fresh air and “exercise” on the terrace of our ward. My radioactive radiation just didn't want to leave my body, which is why my discharge date was delayed further and further. At some point I got cabin fever - I was frustrated because I had imagined everything differently. That affected my painting. I was also frustrated by my failures, which is why I stopped painting in hospital and instead read a lot and worked on another -digital- project. 

I was really looking forward to my apartment, cooking for myself, going shopping again, relaxing on a couch and painting on a large canvas. I longed even more for the mountains, a long walk in the forest and all the other beautiful things in nature. That's when I realized how much we take all these things for granted. It's always good to enjoy the “obvious” things in life and to look out for the little blessings that make our lives more colorful and joyful. 

Here you can see a photo I took the day I was discharged from hospital. One of the first things I did was go for a long walk in the woods. It was an indescribable feeling to walk through the forest, breathe in the forest air, hear the birds chirping and really work my muscles. That is life!