Done.

I did it! I finished my painting!

I started working at 8 a.m. yesterday morning and wasn't done (and in bed) until 2:30 a.m. this morning. I swear, I think I'm the slowest painter on the planet.

I might've mentioned this before, but the painting I was working on is a portrait of my grandparents on their 50th anniversary matted and framed. Along the edge of the mat are some of the lyrics to the Edith Piaf Song "Hymne a L'amour". (My fam is French Canadian). On the glass in white, I painted an outline of the portrait of them on their wedding day.

While I'm painting, I zone out in a major way. My brain is just on an entirely different plane. Yesterday was no different. I swear, I'd work a little bit, look up and the clock said two hours had passed! This happened all day.

I was really happy with the thing while I was working on it, but wasn't so thrilled with it when I finished. This always happens to me. When I'm in the middle of something, I'm rockin' and rollin' and feel like, "I'm awesome!" But by the time it's a finished product, I hate it. After all was said and done, I showed the finished painting to my husband. I was like, "Is the painting on the glass obscuring all the work I did on the portrait?" He shrugged and said, "Kind of." Great. Now I don't want to show it to anyone. Too late for that now.

This morning before work, I dropped off my two pieces with the contest people. I was also dropping off two photos for my dad. (He entered too.) The group of people who were tagging and collecting the work were cheery and laid-back. There was open ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the various pieces of artwork coming in. (Don't worry, these folks are not the judges.) From the little I saw, it seems that there may be stiffer competition this year than there was the last time I entered two years ago. Of course, they've opened the contest up quite a bit since then.

The woman helping me enter and tag all the work I brought in finally got around to tagging my painting. I had the artwork part facing me so that she could sticker the back. She asked, "Can I see?" I turned my painting around, and felt the heat creeping up to my face. I was totally embarrassed! What the heck??? One of the other ladies helping tag items said, "That's interesting. How did you come up with that?" I just shrugged and stammered out an explanation of what it was and that it was supposed to be a Father's Day gift for my dad last year but that I just finished it this month. (I didn't mention anything about being up til the wee hours of this morning!) After everything was stickered, they told me the date of the awards ceremony and wished me luck before I high-tailed it outta there!

I was so confident before, but now I'm having doubts I'll win anything this year. (Two years ago, I got second place in the Professional category.) I suppose even if I don't get anything, my work will be hanging up in City Hall for the whole summer. *Shrug*

I didn't get a chance this morning to upload pics so I'll try to do that when I get home tonight. If my studio isn't suffocatingly hot, of course. (I haven't been able to venture up there for 3 days now!!!)

There is an awards ceremony on Thursday, June 26 at 4 p.m. at City Hall in Manchester. The show will be up from that date until early August for those of you who want to stop in. I'll give more detailed info in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'll be waiting for some sort of phone call over the next two weeks. Last time, I got a message on my answering machine saying they were pleased to announce I won something (no mention of what, however) and inviting me to the awards ceremony. I'll be waiting! Lol.