My Favorite Painting

I'm not crazy about a lot of my paintings after they've been hanging around for awhile. I start to see "amateur" which means I can't put my finger on what it is that I don't like, but I don't find it appealing to me. When the painting is fresh, I am blessed in that I always seem to like it. At this point when I'm in the painting "zone" I'm blinded by to the reality of my work and I am happy and joyful just to be in the process of doing the work, especially plein air. Then later sometimes soon after I get home and other times years later, I look and ask myself...."what were you thinking??? That's terrible!!!!"
..hahhahah and it's a joke. Oh well. How lucky for me to be able to enjoy it and not know it's bad and then when I realize that it IS bad, the love has worn off and I don't feel bad about it, only that it's time to do some cleaning and laughing!
I get to drive along this road twice a day and it always provides something interesting for me to enjoy looking at.
This pastel that I did on Wallis paper is one of my paintings that I STILL like, and I have it hanging in my bedroom so I can look at it every day. it's warm and bright and sunny -just what I wainted. And I love the stripe. It's truthful and graphic and it contrasts against the fluffy soft elements in the rest of the landscape. I just like it. This picture pleases ME and I painted it for me. It MEANS things to me which is part of why I still love it and haven't gotten bored with it....YET!