Scribe's Winter Wonderland... with Charlie Brown, the Grinch and a bunch of East Coasters

It's been a long time coming but the time is now -- to unveil my first-ever "Winter Wonderland" painting.

This is the piece that I had been working on and complaining about for about a month before its completion. I was worried, worried it would look child-like and worried that I hadn't done a good enough job. I'm over that now, so now that my family and friends have each received a copy of the painting as a Christmas card, it's time to release it on the blogging world.

To reiterate, the inspiration was the quaint cottages in PEI and a take on PEI's own the Grinch's Wooville in a frozen pond perfect for pick-up hockey games and ice skating, and to mix Christmas specials, a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It's now hanging in my friend's bedroom above her make-up table where she can gaze upon it every day. Lovingly. And yes, the houses are supposed to look cartoonish. Got it? Okay then.

Now that this project is in the past, it's time to start on another. Last week was my first art class since the holidays, and bloggers, this time we're doing "runs." No, I don't have the runs nor am I going to take off running anywhere, unless a big-ass bear is chasing me. Even then, I'd have to think about it. The potential outcome, the risks. Will I make it? Or won't I? Is it really worth the effort then?

We're using paint runs to create interest and interesting shapes. Just this past program saw one woman nervous about drawing her very first tree, let alone a forest, create very funky and inspired forests simply by wetting the paint, tilting the canvas and watching the paint dog paddle through the paint. It was mystic and misty, and I vowed I wanted to try it. Now.

The time is here, and next week I'm going to get the runs underway. I've painted my background, layer upon layer and sealed in between, and a very low-riding, all-encompassing moon. I've got an idea in my head, but we'll see how it translates onto the canvas. If it doesn't, then I'll tackle it from a new way, with a new idea. I'm getting the hang of this whole creativity flow thing, bloggers.