Even though I’m an artist, I can’t always paint on demand just because I want to.  When I am commissioned by a client to create a painting or a mural, that’s totally different.  We have conversations and meetings, e-mails go back and forth, designs are created and agreed upon.  I have a clear direction of what I am doing, based on all these preparatory steps.   With this challenge, however, it’s a horse of a different color.  (Sidebar:  hmmm, note to self, maybe I’ll paint a horse one day!)  Just because I love pasta, for example, doesn’t mean I want to eat it every day.  The same thing with painting.  Just because I love one particular subject, doesn’t mean I will always be in the mood to paint that.  Generally, I don’t usually sketch out my flowers first.  In fact, there are plenty of times I don’t sketch at all.  I’ll just have a vision in my head that I want to get out, and I’d rather do it with paint than pencil.  I just want to dive right in and get some color on my canvas!  Maybe that’s as silly as putting on your lipstick first, and then the rest of your make-up.  But if that works, then so be it!  Since I challenged myself even further by getting an even smaller size canvas, I thought I should take out a pencil for this one.  So, here it is, my tiniest painting ever, 2 1/2 ” x 3 1/2″.  It was quite fun and I finished it rather quickly.