A Water Fairy

Here, is a picture of a water fairy bathing in a stream at night. It does not resemble the inspiration for the piece at all. How it started, and the way it ended are markedly different. Before marriage and children, I dabbled in sketching and oil painting but never developed any natural ability that I might have. Last year, I decided to start painting again. Folk art and fairies are favorites of mine so I thought this might be a good place to start painting again. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

This spooky fairy is painted in acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is different from using oil paints. With oils, an artist has more time to correct mistakes or make changes before the paint dries. With acrylic paint, the artist must work faster and learn to paint layer on layer.

This enchantress comes out at night and bathes by the glow of a moonstone. Initially, the painting had pink colors and a lunar moth looking down on the fairy from a tree branch. I did not like it and removed both. I like the way her hair floats on the water and how her hair falls down her face, across her nose and mouth, as if she just came up from beneath the water. 

Noses are not easy to for me. I was concentrating so much on the nose I forgot that I was using paper and not canvas. Before I knew it, I had peeled the paper off. Determined not to lose the whole painting, I made the hair longer around the nose and mouth. The darker paint helps conceal my mistake. The mistake also introduced an ominous presence to the picture. If you look at the face from the side of the painting, the face looks like a skull. My grand-daughter will not let me hang it up when she is here. She isn't old enough to appreciate a night-time fairy yet. Ironically, she loves her Monster dolls. LOL