Best Selling Acrylic Painting Instructional Book

Zen Houses Online Workshop

Zen Painting Online Workshop

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

WIP--Name that Painting

Wow! It's been awhile since I've blogged. I've been down and outright sickly from last Wednesday through Monday of this week with a case of strep throat, ear infection, fever, migraine...you name it. The good news is that I lost five pounds. Now--for the other 35 I want to loose!! It's been a chore to get anything done this week but I did manage to get started with my color challenge project I'm doing with the new team I joined on Etsy, called METSY (mixed media artists on Etsy). We picked a color palette from an ultra cool website I'll have to back through my favorites and try to find...believe me if you click on the website, you'll be lost in a sea of colors and be lucky to escape alive :). We voted on some of the top color palettes the team chose and the winner was this one called "Purple blossom". Our challenge is to create a piece or two of work that we can sell in our etsy stores as well as use to promote each other in treasuries and blogs. The deadline is April 30th--so I'm moving along pretty decently for me, little last minute lucy ;)
Isn't this color combo cool?? Reminds me of walk in the garden at dusk. I'm not sure if I see purple in it, but that's what the curator of this color palette chose to call it. Maybe I do.

I started with a blurry drawing of my vision--loosely inspired by one of my 5000 magazine cut out inspiration photos so I'm not exactly where it came from other than my box of cut outs.

This is a piece of thin wood board, sanded and primed with gesso and then I brayered some yellow green on the base using a piece of textured wall paper.

Next, I lightly drew the main image of the girl holding the flowers and her skirt. Added a second layer of brayered greens as well as scrap papers in various places. For pasting on the papers I purchased a big ole jar of heavy gel medium---it's like a can of crisco modgepodge...lol. It works fabulously!! I had no issues with bubbles on the papers at all as I do with modge podge. It's expensive but I used a 50% off coupon at Michael's so I saved about 9 dollars!!

When you have a layer of glue or varnish on your work, not everything will write over it so you need to either use a charcoal or graphite pencil. That black thingie is a graphite pencil which I dropped on the floor (accidently). It will write over anything!

An example of the textured wall paper used. My Sweet Goodness Sister Jane gave me this wall paper as well as a bunch of other collage goodies that I have been using lovingly. I've used this piece alone about 50 times already!!

For the next step--I tore up bits and bobs of scrap booking papers and some music to create texture on the skirt. I might not be a scrapbooker but the allure of all the delicious papers available is hard for me to pass up anytime I walk in a craft store. I wish Michael's had the variety of papers that Hobby Lobby does. ((Only because Michael's is 15 minutes away from me and HL is an hour....otherwise HL would be my artfix joint of choice)) ;)

First layer of color on the skirt was scrapings of white, then the purplish mauve that I came up with for the challenge. Background you can see coming alive with more greenery. I was watching the Martha show one day (I forget if it was the craft show or regular show) and they featured a shadow garden. I've never heard of a shade garden before but I guess it's one that has only greenery-shade plants and ground cover. It's a place where you can go to just relax and get lost in the shade of the leaves and reflect on your day, your life, your place in the world.
I love that thought. This is where this young girl is going--to her shade garden.

I took this picture at about 10:30 last night so it's a lot darker than the real picture is--but you can see now how it's all coming together with the addition of her bouquet of fresh picked flowers as she heads towards the shade garden.

I'm attempting the scary hand. eeeks. There are some things I am just deathly afraid of painting. I'm still learning and well--I just didn't want this hand to turn out like a claw and ruin the blessed piece!

So far so good. It's hard to tell from this picture but on top of the first skirt layer, I added a layer of paint I made by taking some of my lumiere powders ( you can see the tiny jar of EXPENSIVE powder in the upper left corner) and adding a bit of gel medium glaze. This creates a translucent layer of color. Lots of fun being an Art Scientist! I'm not quite sure what I'm going to call this yet..but the main feeling I"m trying to convey is that of peace and reflection....any ideas? Hopefully this piece will be finished by next week so I need your input! Should we cast a vote for the name???? Please chime in if you want to title this latest work!!

I will send you a small prize if I pick your name!!
***

I have about 4 other pieces in the works right now, it's just slow going as I spent the majority of the last several days on the couch. My glands were so swollen on the right side of my neck, i looked like a freakin football player. Thank goodness that has started to go down...my neck doesn't need to be any bigger than it already is!!

I'm on vacation the rest of this week so hopefully I can knock out a bunch of projects and get my house in order. This last week I've read chapters in my book The Secret on Money, Relationships and Health. To play along, I'm going to have a yard sale (soon) in preparation for a move. Am I moving anywhere?? No, not yet. But it says in the book, if you want something, act like it's already yours, see it, feel it, believe it..and the universe will start to align itself so it will indeed be yours. What does that have to do with a yard sale?? Well, heck, I don't want to move all this stuff for when I get a new home!! Heck no! I'm going to get rid of stuff my rapidly growing boys don't play with, fit into, or don't want anymore--Mama is going to clear out her closets, cupboards--and pair down as well.
It also says if you want to be in a relationship--you shouldn't have full closets in your bedroom. There's no room for anyone else if you have a full closet. Hmm. I didn't know it was that easy of a fix. I would have cleaned out those dang things awhile ago had I known! Once they are clean and ready to go...I'll let you know then if you have a rich brother or uncle--or heck, grandpa...let me know!! ;) Okay maybe not grandpa but definitely brother or uncle. :) LOL

Have an artfully great day!

6 comments :

HareAndDrum said...

your painting instantly reminded me of a U2 song that starts: "Summer stretching on the grass, summer dresses pass", but the challenge is supposed to have a spring theme... so how about STARING AT THE SUN? She looks like she's walking absent-mindedly enjoying the first sunrays. Beautiful and warm.

Jeanne Rhea said...

Summer Stroll is my suggestion.

Clearing out your closets to allow for a man in your life---I've heard that before and I think there could be something to that. I always looked at the men I dated and if their house was so full, then I knew there was no room for me. And if they had a really messy house, I knew I did not want to be there, too. My husband and I always have felt that we matched up so well as he was looking to see if I valued clothes, diamonds so much I would spend all the money and I wanted to know that I would not be a maid.

KV Creative Designs said...

Your painting is Fantastic!! I like the name "Spring Surprise" because finding the "Grand" is like a little surprise.
Artful Blessings,
Kathryn

Cathie said...

What a lovely spring painting - love the words beneath her skirt. I so imagine she has a beautiful face and long windblown hair.

Mrs.Kwitty said...

What a great piece--I loved hearing how you put it together. It really does have such a sweet serene feel to it--how about something like Thoughtful Garden or Handful of Dreams?

Sorry you were so ill--yuck! Hope you are over the worst of it.

Good for you--I need so badly to clean closets and simplify around here--it's gotten so cluttered and it makes me feel stressed. Interesting idea about having no room for a man when your closets are full.....hmmm....

Smiles, Karen

reagan said...

I just love this piece, it is supposed to be spring here but we got snow flurries instead! I will have to keep a mental picture of this lovely spring inspired piece in my mind today. My mind is saying something simple for the title, no fancy meaning, a statement. So my title is
"Girl Holding Flowers"
This piece has a very Monet-esque feel to it, a blurry snapshot of spring.
Thanks for sharing on etsy, I will come back and visit again!
Pam