My Betty Grable

It started with a paint night.

My friend took me to my first paintnite a couple of months ago. Though my painting wasn’t anything to write home about, it was a great exercise to fearlessly throw paint at a canvas and come up with a painting in under 2 hours. (My usual problem is – I put a tiny amount of paint on the canvas and obsess about one square centimetre at a time.)

Paintnite gave me the painting bug again.

I went home and scoured the internet for painting tips and ideas. I came across an artist – Fieldey – who makes really great youtube videos about acrylic painting. (She also wears amazing shirts.) She made an outstanding retro portrait painting, and I knew that I wanted to make one too.

I used this iconic image of Betty Grable as my inspiration:

Armed with dollar store canvas and paints (yes, I really am that cheap) I was ready for my first attempt. Here’s what I came up with:

SHE’S SO CUTE! I was super happy with my Betty Grable, and I very rarely say that about my own paintings. I actually enjoyed looking at her – so much so that I kept her up on the easel in my kitchen to look at.

But then – THEN – tragedy struck.

As I was angrily vacuuming (the usual state in which I vacuum) I sucked up the tie on my painting apron, which was hanging from my easel. As I tried to pull the vacuum away – down came my easel with Betty Grable on it!

I had poked a hole through her feet. I was devastated. I think I even cried a pouty cry (by myself holding my vacuum in the kitchen).

I tried my best to fix her. I patched the hole from the back using a piece of fabric, and I tried to close the hole from the front as best I could.

It still doesn’t look great. It’s bumpy where I burst through the canvas. I still need to pull out my paints again and try to paint over the cut. Oh well, c’est la vie I guess.

I’m working on an iceberg next (a little Lawren Harris inspiration) but I’m not as into it as Betty Grable. I think I need to do more pin-ups. Mark approves of this.

Anyway, since then I got the crochet bug again …

 

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