I’ve taken one of my acrylic starts and added some collage. This is the first edition and I’ve used a variety of techniques including wet into wet puddling, stamping, scraping, and lifting. This is meant to be the front of a European home. It’s not working so far but I’ve got a long way to go. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pull it off! 
Cheers!
Retweet thisI’m liking the way the light travels through this piece now. I’ve moved the lighter values into the bottom of the piece and glazed in several places to repeat the top left glow. This isn’t done yet but it’s getting close enough to set up on the shelf in my studio for now. Other than anchoring the wine bottle with a shadow (which seems obvious now) I’m happy enough to leave it and move on. 
February 16 I posted a photo of this and the photo I altered in PSE 8 to plan my next step. I’ve continued on this one but, as usual, I’m not quite sure how to finish up. Here’s how it stands right now.
I’m grabbing a few art minutes between bookkeeping sessions. Boooring accounting – how did I do that for a living for 20 years?
Anyhow, here’s where this painting landed yesterday. I’m liking it in 
I’m looking forward to class tomorrow – I’m needing a critique on some of these pieces I’ve been working on! Ciao!
Retweet thisFebruary 6 I posted 2 starts – this is one of those in it’s current state. Next steps for this painting I’ve got more city planned for the left hand side which will break up the space more effectively.
This one is almost unrecognizable from the start Feb 6. Here’s how it looked then.
This morning I sat with a cup of coffee and a checklist of the elements and principles of design and did a bit of analysis of 3 paintings in progress, including this one. I found myself attracted to the patterns suggestive of windows and saw one vase-like curve. So, that’s the direction I decided to take this painting today. Here’s what it looks like now…
A week ago I was fairly happy with most of my painting Moonrise Over Sunset but there were a lot of distracting details and no real focal point. Last Wednesday I determined to simplify it beginning with a partial glaze of near white to get back some lighter areas. I mixed just a bit of titanium white with a Golden product that is new to me – Acrylic Glazing Medium. That’s where things began to go wrong. I misjudged the amount of white in the mix. My plan was to put down a thin layer of this mix and lift off the most important areas before it dried. BUT, because of the opacity I couldn’t see anything.
Plan B: I decided to let it go… I left the rest of it to dry before taking alcohol and a rough cotton rag to it. Here’s how it looked then. The transparent colors were GONE, the circular theme and freshness was GONE… Grr!
Needless to say, my mood wasn’t conducive to tackling this problem so I put it aside until Saturday. I used a viewfinder design from last year and drew it on with chalk. The texture from the previous painting gave this one some really cool texture. Here’s how it looks right now. I refuse to name it until I’ve lived with it a little while but I’m liking the patterns and texture of this new painting so far.
Enjoy!
Retweet thisI’m breaking in new progressive eyeglasses and it’s been a struggle to paint this week. However, here’s the current state of the abstract I posted Wednesday. This painting is the first chance I’ve had to use my recently carved sheaf stamp – a personal symbol from my Saskatchewan farm childhood. Since Wednesday, I’ve defined some dark areas as well as adding more implied texture and interest in the light areas. I’m moving forward but “thingness” is alluding me so far. I don’t mind it ending as an abstract but it’s unusual that I don’t see any”thing” in a painting. It’s good practice for me though and that is the point of it right now. Enjoy!
SIDEBAR: Speaking of sheaves….here’s a funny story from my childhood. As a young child who regularly attended church, my favourite hymn was [I thought] Bringing in the Cheese. I loved my cheese so I belted that line out every chance I got. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that I should be singing SHEAVES instead of cheese! I was shocked, particularly because I was too young to know what “sheaves” meant. I learned that evening. I chuckle every time it crosses my mind.
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When I’m working “from chaos” like this there are lots of layers. I’m really having a good time puttering on 4 paintings at the same time - while I wait for one layer to dry I can pick up another painting and get another layer done on it.
I’m having fun with my new continuous sheaf stamp which I carved last week. You can see it in this painting in several places. Now I’m off to my studio. Ciao!
Retweet thisThese are two canvases I started earlier this week with a variety of texture stamps, stencils and mediums. In these pics I’ve just got the first layer of paint on them. I’ll be working on these over the next few days taking them from chaos into, hopefully, something nice to look at. It’s a lot of fun to just doodle with paint and not worry about where it’s going for a while. Very therapeutic – I highly recommend it ;o)
This was a lot of fun! I have many layers of acrylic paint here. When I began to have a vision of sunsets and moonrises I didn’t want to have just little 3” circles… so, I lifted in several key places to suggest the larger orb. To do that I rubbed a cotton rag wet with alcohol. The lifting works well on this piece because of the very first layer – Golden gloss gel. After lifting back to to white, I glazed yellow and crimson over my moon and defined darker areas behind it. Lastly, I applied a little bit of cloudy veil [white mixed with a bit of crimson and thalo blue] over the darkest part of the sun.
Here’s what this painting looked like yesterday afternoon. Looking at this picture you can see how much lifting I had to do to lighten my sun.
Enjoy!
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This is one of those paintings that is worked abstractly from chaos at first. I’ve got more work to do before I can consider subject options. I need to develop the big shapes and deal with some awkward tangents and shape placements. I’ll quiet down some areas by glazing them down a value and that will help clarify the focal area. So, that’s the plan… for now. Enjoy!
Retweet thisI returned 2 days ago from a week in Mexico enjoying their beautiful beaches and catching up on my vitamin D. I’m getting back into my routine this week.
I have several acrylic paintings that I’ve been working on this week. I’ll be sharing them here soon. Enjoy!
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