New painting and my one year 'blogiversary'

Hi everyone, as I mentioned yesterday today is my one year anniversary of blogging! I really never thought that I would still be doing this a year later. But I have found it so addictive and rewarding I don't want to stop!!! It's so nice to have an outlet for my art as otherwise I'd be painting pieces that no one ever saw, I've also been so inspired to try new things like making pendants and jewellery, opening an etsy shop etc that I wouldn't have dreamt of doing if not for the encouragement of my blog friends, so thank you!!!

I thought I would show you my new painting, I don't know if you remember my Geisha lady? Well she has become quite popular (as a pendant) and I even have someone who wants to buy the actual painting which is very exciting for me, I'm just in the process of framing it so I'll show you a picture of it when it's done. I'm hoping to continue with this theme of beautiful women in traditional clothes and want to try painting ladies from all over the world. This next one is an Indian lady. I really LOVE the jewellery, clothes, make up, everything about the Indian culture, not to mention the food!! I find the clothes so colourful and beautiful that i had to paint my own version. So here she is, I painted it her in acrylic paint, inktense pencils and used some texture paste on the background. I googled some photos of Indian ladies in traditional dress and took ideas for a pose from one, clothes from another and added my own flare. I find that it's good to have some point of reference for these paintings otherwise I'd get lost with all the details.I painted her on MDF wood just like the Geisha. I think she'll look nice as a pendant too. Hope you like her.....