Wise Counsel

Well, the week before last in church, the speaker quoted a talk that I absolutely loved the first time I heard it and I still love when I hear quotes from it. The original talk was given by Elder Wirthlin shortly before he passed away. He talks about finding joy amid trials and how we can love the lessons learned from our difficulties. You can find it HERE if you would like to read the whole talk. It is one great talk and it inspired me to paint a picture in my art journal about it. I liked it so much that I refined it a bit and painted my first (ta-da) canvas board(i.e. real art).
"Wise Counsel" mixed media, painted on 11x14 canvas board.
I even had to practice my signature to sign my piece because I have never painted anything that needed a signature before. This piece started out with a collage of patterned paper, old book pages, old stamps (I knew my old stamp collection would come in handy one day) and gel medium. I painted the rest with liquid acrylics and charcoal. I really kind of LOVE it. Maybe because it's my first "real art", or maybe because of the quote, I don't know but I do know that I love the texture of it. I wish you could see it. I know that as my skills continue to grow, the time will come when I look at it and see "beginner work" but for now, I will just love it for what it is: My first piece.