"Hibernating No More"

"Hibernating No More"
Watercolor, white acrylic and salt

I like that I have many alteregos. I can be SunHawk or ButterflyWoman, depending on my feelings and moods. Today I think I'm listening to Butterfly Woman, who has missed making her presence known on my artistic creations. I think in a past life, I was either a flying creature of some sort or a flower, as I have such an affinity to these nature creations. I came up with the above image, "Hibernating No More" after the raindrops outside forced me inside for shelter and into a deeper part of me. Also, I have been taking a hiatus from my painting and now feel inspired to tap into that aspect of me in more recent days. (So a bit of a double meaning for me here). I was looking at a butterfly book and was inspired by a particular shape and color. The original photo was dark blue, so using that as a jumping off point, I plunged into my own imagination. Yes, it seems, that sometimes I do need photographs or other images to stir me up. Yet, save for the outline shape that has some similarity, the colors are totally different. It is my own creation, I feel. I painted the image above using watercolors, opaque white paint and other little texture tools like salt. The glowing yellow above this creature represents the sun as well as the yearning for a higher spiritual dimension of myself. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to paint her and the next day put her in my scanner and let her fly. Hm, seems I need a bigger scanner as mine only scans 8x10 images. So a bit of her has been clipped, especially the wings, but as I like cropped images anyway, no matter at this point. I also attempted to sign my name using a pencil tool in Photoshop (wanted to experiment). I had to do it with my right hand, even though I am left handed and felt the signature didn't turn out too bad. Usually I take a pencil or brush and hand-sign my name to the painting. Now, I know Thomas Kinkade puts his DNA into each of his paintings, but I'm not going that far. Just letting my spirit soak into the painting is enough for me.