Love Brightens The Soul - New Abstract

"love brightens the soul"

mixed media on 12x12 gallery wrapped canvas

Hard to believe it is Friday again already!  The summer is really flying on by.  I am pretty sure I say that to myself every summer but this year has been crazy so far!

Today I wanted to share my latest abstract.  I used a color palette not typical for me but I am pretty happy with the results.  And after such gloom and doom over here at Casa Bueti lately with my arm debacle and the loss of yet another dog 2 weeks ago it felt nice to paint something inspiring and positive.  

I am finding that the more I paint with my hands the less I enjoy using a brush.  This piece was painted that way.  I always wear gloves when I paint with my hands.  If not that would be one big mess!  I did use my palette knife for some of the details though.  I used payne's gray mixed with quin nickel azo gold, and titan buff.  I am hoping you can see the nice deep green color the gray and the gold create.  

Here is a shot of it before my favorite part.  This was also the stage where I was stuck fearing my next move would mess it all up.  

I am sharing this piece over at Paint Party Friday. 

 It is quite a rainy day here in NY but much needed.   These kind of days make me feel lazy.  Perfect weather for cuddling up on the couch with a pug.  

xo

New Photo Collage Painting . . .

"Seek Truth"

mixed media on 12x12 gallery wrapped canvas

available on etsy

I was pretty excited to share this painting and had to post it today! It felt really good getting back to combining my photography with mixed media. I used my tree photo that I shared for texture tuesday last week as well as its inverted image. Thought you would like to see how this came alive so here are a couple of photos showing its first stages. . .

This is how I laid down the collage. I really didn't know where it would go at this point but it took me a few minutes to find placement I was happy with. I printed out the photos on regular printer paper in black and white. And I used mod podge to glue all of them down. I am loving mod podge for collage!

This next photo is not great but I am still trying to figure out how to take good shots of my artwork! Typically I scan them but the size of this canvas prevented me from doing so. At this point I have added washes of burnt sienna and quinacridone nickel azo gold fluid acrylics. I also added some stamping as an attempt to incorporate my images into the background.

This was at the point I was scared to ruin the painting. The ugly stage almost stalled me out. But next I added payne's gray in different areas as you can see from the completed piece. I really love that color with the orange and yellow tones of the other colors. I also added more stamping with my favorite dogwood tree stamp and stenciled the butterflies on with the payne's gray. Lastly I used my caran d'ache crayons for shading. I like to use them dry and just scrub them out with a dry brush. The trees I extended down the canvas using a black pitt pen.

I feel very connected to this piece. The colors look dark yet dreamy and when I incorporate my photography it feels like there is more of me in there.

Hope you guys like it too!

xo