I love lavender.  The smell of it and the beautiful color.  Someday I'll plant some in my backyard to enjoy the fragrance and blooms during summer.  When I found this image on Pixabay, I knew I wanted to do something with it.  France is incredible and this shot of Senanque Abbey in Provence just made me yearn to be there.  It reminded me of the time I spent in Marseille with a friend many years ago. I might not be able to go visit, but I sure could imagine it with my baby.  So I created a fine art portrait of her from her birthday session I did a few weeks ago.  This cute shot had her smiling so pretty and with her little crown and necklace, it just seemed fitting for a little princess.  I thought it was a little boring, though, so I decided to add butterflies, too.  

I worked on it on and off for about 5 days and ended up with more than 30 layers in Photoshop at one point.  Creating pieces like this tends to be a work in progress where I have to step away and come back and make changes to it again.  After staring at it for so long, it can be difficult to see the improvements that need to be made, but having time to reflect on it and come back to it helps.  Considering Leonardo da Vinci took more than a decade to finish the Mona Lisa this isn't too long!  I can't say I won't go back and work on it more later, but right now I think it's finished.