I have hobbies :)

I have always been a creative person, being an only child has a way of making you creative i think. No one to play with , i had to make my own enjoyments.
 One was food, the other was crafts. From a very young age we travelled every year to Victoria for three months, this may have been the start of me using food for comfort. I remember we were awake so so so early to get travelling for the 2 day trip. Mum would always make sure we had a breakfast stop a couple of hours down the road. I usually got straight back to sleep when i got into the car to travel, waking up mainly at each food stop, sleep , food , sleep , food. That is how we made our trips. Because of car sickness i had to eat often to keep me from feeling sick. 

It was only the other day that i was remembering these travels and the comforting, snuggled feeling i had when i was feeling a little car sick, then mum would buy a yummy lunch  and i would snuggle up in the back seat ,  warm and cozy and lovingly eat my food. it was euphoric to have good food when i was younger. 
I continued this ritual even after we stopped travelling , Food always made me feel good. Safe and comfortable. 
I was often bored as a kid due to the lack of playmates till i was alot older. i would often steal food when i was growing up. My mum never denied me anything , but to me food was a solution. If i was bored, sad, happy, lonely, even while i was doing things , food wasn't far away, and even as an adult my greatest joy was to rug up in bed or on the couch and eat chips, or ice cream.,not every day but often enough to be a problem,

I was not a sporty kid at all, running was not my strength. i was content to read a book, or do some tapestry , or drawing, crochet, sewing, anything i could try i gave it my best. Being creative served me well over the years. 

4 years ago mum was talking about folk art and i told her how amazing i thought the art looked and i had wished i was able to paint. It seemed to be the only thing i had not figured out. That was soon to change. We had a few lessons  from a dear friend who did the most amazing works of art, these lessons resulted in a watery scene on a place mat. We were impressed with out novice work. i tried other things and felt good about how my painting was going. I did some zebras, a beach scene , a plane for my son. They started to no longer feel like a challenge to  me. Could i do better?  This was to be the thought that brought forth talents unknown to me until my first try. I was about to try my first portrait. I had no idea at this stage what the heck i was to do. All i knew was a few tips on painting a flower and here i was going to give faces a try. Who would be my guinea pig? My kids of course lol. 
Mum had not tried portraits either and she was on holiday so we couldn't try together. i decided to try my painting and send her pics of it as i went along. Her amazement at my work so far spurred me on and i got it finished, my first ever portrait. took me over 44 hours work. It still has pride of place  right beside me in my office.Being over a meter tall makes it an eye catching peace. 

The more i painted the more i figured out new ways to achieve the looks i wanted and i never gave up . It seemed as soon as i sat down and got in the zone i could get my paintings done in about 6 hours , sometimes a little more if they were tricky. 
I was and still am self conscious about my work, but also amazed at myself too. If that's even possible. 
The worst thing was each time i painted i was also shoving food in my face. The worst offender being chips. i could easily eat a large party sized pack  while painting. 
This was not helping my size in any way. Then my vertigo and anxiety took my painting off me for about a year and a half. i rarely picked up a paint brush. Even now its been a couple of months. I have some fresh ideas though , and with my weight loss , and resulting confidence boost and probably more oxygen, i can feel my creative juices flowing. Either that or i just peed a little.
I will no longer feed my face whilst I'm painting. The only thing between my teeth will be my paintbrush ( i do this sometimes when i change brushes over repeatedly.) 

So its time to share my creations. i look forward to hearing what you think. 
I am making sure that i get myself painting more this year. I think i will give a few celebrities a go, starting with Ellen who will be here in March, I'm hoping to have a Mish portait done by end of round so keep an eye out for that too. 

My whole point with all this jabber is my admission  that food was my bestie  and now with weight loss and gained confidence i shall be whipping a paint brush around again soon. very soon.

Below is my very first portrait. is just over a meter tall. and is of my 5 kids and the two dogs we had at the time. From top left is Kahlyssa, Tatjahna, second row, left , Ewan, and his twins sister Dakotah, 
Then below her is Connor, The very bottom is left, Remus, and little Tango. I use Acrylics.

The next two are old friends of mine , i thought i would try  male faces.

 Then a gift to my phillipino friend for her birthday 

An action shot, i wanted to try clothing painting 

The love of my life below, I made this for him for Christmas, while we were still just Best Friends 

I dabbled in equine 

My first time at doing the back grounds of a painting. this is my doctor, mum (who is also a painter ) and i both painted him from the same reference photo to see how we differ in technique. 

 This gentleman below is an artist in Italy named Leonardo .. he wanted to paint me one day so i said yes ( he uses oils) we got talking about art and how i was just beginning so he challenged me to do a painting of him. 

Bored one day i made a lion for my cousin, who is most proud of my skills 

 This beautiful Woman is my mum , and one of my fave paintings. This was back before she embraced her lovely white hair that she shows today. 

I have a long way to go perfecting technique but im also just happy to keep going the way i am and i refuse to have lessons ... That determination will see me survive 12wbt :)