Inspired to Paint...or to THINK about Painting!

Lately, I've been very inspired to paint.  I haven't done any painting, per se; but I've been THINKING a lot about painting.

I keep seeing things that make me say, "I've got to paint that!"  Some recent photos of my 16-month-old twin granddaughters at the apple orchard were absolutely meant to be captured on canvas.  I've got to get myself motivated, get out to Michael's and purchase some much-needed new brushes and other supplies, and get to it.

But here's the problem: there is so much beauty everywhere, and so much of what I see inspires me, that in the end, I just get overwhelmed and decide to paint...nothing.

Recently, we were at the University of Notre Dame and visited the breathtakingly beautiful Basilica of the Sacred Heart that is located on campus.  Here is the painted ceiling of the Mary Chapel in the back.

Isn't it incredible?  I love it so much--I could look at it forever--and I want to re-create it on my dining room ceiling!  I mean, I've never done decorative painting on a ceiling before, but I paint on the walls all the time...However (and this is a big however), I do not have the Michelangelo-like talent of whatever artist created this amazing work in the basilica.  I can paint things like pigs, squirrels, birds, starfish, faux bricks--and when I say I can paint them, that doesn't mean that I can paint them WELL.  Here's a sample of some of the wall painting I've done in my house.  This is the upstairs bathroom (or, when my boys were growing up here, the "boys' bathroom"), which I decided to give a beach theme.

I don't think the artist who painted those dolphins and that seagull on these bathroom walls has the talent to paint ornate Biblical scenes like the ones on the ceiling of the Mary Chapel--unfortunately.  But boy, would she ever love to try!

(If I ever actually decide to paint angels and saints on my dining room ceiling, I will most definitely have to blog about that!)