when life sends you darkness look for the light

I finished my painting today for week one of the art course over at willowing. I really enjoyed doing the background for this painting as I have used lots of methods I havent done before such as dripping paint, brayering white acrylics and blending the face with the background. As an exercise we had to write down lots of negative thoughts about ourselves and then gesso over them...using art to understand what positive messages were behind these negative thoughts. I wanted my face to look a lot older so have added laughter lines around the eyes and nose...I am another year older tomorrow! As part of this week's art we also had to add a positive statement and word to our portrait so I have chosen the word strength as I think we become stronger as we fight lifes battles. I am really enjoying painting so think I will do another one tonight with a shorter nose!