A painting for Steven

I did this painting for Steven for Christmas. We do not exchange gifts per say these days -no store bought gifts for us anymore, but he has let it be known that he would love a bit of art from me anytime, in any fashion . . . I happily obliged. I had been wanting to challenge myself to a larger size mixed media painting and I thought that making this for him would fulfill my need of wanting to give him something for the holidays. We hung the painting up today in our bedroom; fortunately there was bare wall space above our bed! 

This is definitely not a masterpiece or anything, but I love expressing myself -- and my love for Crazy Steve. He really enjoyed receiving this -a big surprise! I used spray dyes, stencils, oil pastels, and some acrylic paint. The dyes were not the best choice because they took forever to dry, but finally they did and then I spayed the whole painting with a matte acrylic sealer. For a while there, my hands turned blue every time I touched the painting!! 
I thought about water while I was creating this, as Steven is on the water every day, has a big love of it. I am also fascinated with water. So, this is a good piece to hang in our bedroom where we will see it every day! That's where I am heading now, to snuggle in and sleep. We have extra blankets on the bed as it is forecast to get down to . . . 38 F -yikes!! Very cold for these parts, where's my flannel jammies?!