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Fine art painting has been what I have been concentrating on for the past few weeks. Illustrating my children’s books has consumed my time for several months, so I am taking a break from them and I am working on my fine art.

Trompe l’oeil is a type of art that I especially enjoy. Design is my passion: drawing up plans for remodeling projects, creating and then plating gourmet cuisine, room decorating, the gardens around our home, but most of all, constructing trompe l’oeil artwork. All of my art requires design, of course, but for me there is something different with trompe l’oeil. Maybe it’s because I enjoy the deceptions that I create, as well. Watching the realization dawn on people’s faces when they realize that I have created a painting not a collage is fun to see. This trompe l’oeil painting is constructed very simply compared to a lot of my other pieces in this style. A much more involved piece will be on easel in the near future. Remodeling a piece that was only partway finished will be a project for me in the New Year. Feeling like the unfinished piece was heading towards failure a couple of years ago, I wisely put it aside until I could figure out what it was trying to say to me.

Often times, if a painting is not working, it is because I am not listening to what is being said by the piece. The hard reality is that I, alone, am accountable for the success or failure of my paintings so I must listen. Accountability is a big thing with me, for there cannot be growth without it. Accountability was something that I tried to teach my children and then my students. There cannot be growth without accountability, for how can you change directions if you don’t think that you are the one that is responsible? Nobody can know everything, so thinking that you do can just lead to disaster. When a piece of artwork wasn’t working for me years ago, I did battle with it for days or months before I finally listen to the piece. Now, when I am struggling with the vision I have for a painting, I take a break and then practice patience until I can figure out the resolution. After all, past failures build the foundation for future success.

Currently, I have two trompe l’oeil pieces in an art show. Paintings of this genre are not common in painting exhibitions. After all of these years of painting, however, I am painting what inspires and intrigues me and not what I think might sell.