Alexa - Finished Painting

This turned out to be a sweet little painting (5 x 7 inches) on a layer of Golden's Fiber Paste, giving it the appearance of having been painted on handmade paper.

I think this is the first girl I've painted who is wearing a hat. It suits her though, I think.

She looks like she knitted it herself... ;-)

Alexa
5 x 7 inch (13 x 18 cm) painting on wrapped canvas

SOLD ~~ thank you! 

Yesterday, I spent almost five hours in the print studio and finished my last two editions. Today we have our final critique and on Tuesday is cleanup. Then class is done and I'll have more time again for other things...which will be good!

I'm working on more felted hearts and also two paintings - one portrait (I already showed you the underpainting) and one little still life.

An experiment...

Before...

Ever since my good friend Anne (El Milagro Studio) suggested silver leaf for a different painting, it's been on my mind and finally today, I got the materials out and tried. I wanted to try it on a painting that I didn't like very much, which was the one above. Something about just never agreed with me, so I decided to apply silver leaf to the heavily textured background to see how it would adhere.

... and after!

Well, after I did that (which worked like a charm, by the way!), I started tinkering with the woman and decided to rouse her from her meditation and have her be present with a lot more color all around. Suddenly I like her much more. Now somehow I can connect to her!

I still have to seal the silver leaf and we'll see how that works, but if everything goes smoothly, I'll start adding it to my three pod woman (click here to see the first two - although they've changed a bit).

Maybe I'll have more to show you tomorrow already!

The cursed canvas

A Quiet Moment

Mixed media painting on 5 x 7 inch wrapped canvas

First of all, thank you for all the great comments on my last painting!! Here's one I did this morning. I call this the cursed canvas, because it's the third painting I tried on it. This one is at least good enough to show you.

The first one was so bad, I immediately covered it with glass bead gel. Then, I realized just how hard it is to paint on glass beads... The resulting painting was very dark and had a sort of moth on it, but I just didn't like it. So, I covered everything with a think layer of fiber paste.

I love fiber paste, but it adds a lot (and I mean a lot) of texture to the canvas and make it a little hard to apply paint. I find it works best if I paint with heavy bodied acrylics. Anyway, I might paint over her again, but for now, I have it sitting in my studio for further contemplation...

In the meantime, I all but finished a larger painting and cannot wait to show you!!! Hopefully tomorrow.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!

Art Journal - Page 5

In the end, there was only surrender

7 x 10 inch acrylic painting

Ok, friends, I am beyond excited about this little painting in my art journal!! Truly thrilled!!! Some time ago, I had looked through an old Somerset Studio magazine, which had an article by Misty Mawn on art journaling. (I think her art is actually on the cover of the current magazine.)

I was so entirely captivated by her art, her limited, soft palette, that I wanted to try something like it. So, this is my Misty Mawn inspired portrait, which is much like the portrait in the magazine and yet quite different, and I LOVE it!! I painted it on a coat of gesso covered by a thick layer of fiber paste (great stuff!!) mixed with Phthalo Turquoise. The texture is amazing and perfect for dry brush painting with heavy body acrylics!

The experimenting I am doing in my journal has been an eye opener for me. My "real" paintings have made me afraid to experiment and I don't know exactly why. And because of that, the joy I usually feel is eluding me. But in my journal, I feel like I did when I first started out.

This painting certainly made my heart skip a beat...

Weeping Skies

Weeping Skies

Mixed Media Acrylic Painting on 11 x 14 inch canvas

The creative process is still a mystery to me. I just have to say this again!

I started this painting by preparing the canvas with some fiber paste toward the bottom of the canvas and glass bead gel toward the top of the canvas. I then painted an abstract underpainting with white, black and gray tones. My intention was to paint over all of that with very thin and delicately pale washes.

But once I got going the painting took off in a totally different direction. I started out with pale washes but quickly graduated to more intense colors and in the end even added torn paper. I've used iridescent pearl, gold, and copper, plus some black mica flakes. Also, both papers have some gold in them so the painting changes with changing light.

Weeping Skies isn't pale or delicate, but it makes a statement and I really like it! It reminds me of waves and the sky...

P.S. Thanks so much to all of you who have entered my giveaway! If you haven't yet done so, just go to my previous post and leave a comment!