WIP Update . . . Urban Landscape

I thought I would post an updated photo on the progress of my urban landscape painting. You can see the first stage of this painting and the inspiration photo HERE.

I am surprised that I made it this far. I am continuing to use only payne's gray white. I made some tweeks to it in order to continue with the perspective. I added some yellow on the buildings to mimic windows and widened the road in the foreground. I almost attempted a car on the road but erased it! Not sure yet how I will be able to do that.

I actually like the unfinished look to it. Sometimes when I do landscape I am way too rigid, trying to achieve an exact replica of the photo I use for inspiration. This time I am trying to let loose a bit and go for my own impression of it.

Would love to hear your input and or suggestions!

Control . . . Getting Messy With Paint

"Control"

acrylics on 8x10 art board

Its strange to me the title that came to mind for this piece. It feels very out of control to me. I painted this late last night which I don't normally do. But hubby fell asleep early and I was restless. So I went into my studio. I grabbed some alizarin crimson, payne's gray, a brush, some paper towels and started smearing then wiping. I had no idea or plan for what I was doing. When I saw what looked like water on the bottom start to come out I worked on bringing that out. I used white gesso instead of white paint. For some reason I really like the chalkiness of the gesso.

The butterfly stamps were an after thought but I like how they look against the darkness of this piece. It felt good to not pay attention to the end result but get caught up in the process which doesn't happen too often for me. With all the anxiety I had at the beginning of this week I feel like maybe I worked some of it out!

Its cool how you never know what you will see . . . I see a little white angel in the top left just above the "L" in Control! Do you see it too?

Snow Angel . . . New Abstract

"Snow Angel"

acrylic glazes on 5x5 inch birch wood

prints available on etsy

This was hubby's idea. The other night he told me I should paint a snow angel for one of my glazed abstracts. Those are his favorite paintings of mine. Typically I have been going to the canvas and just letting images appear. But for this one I did a light sketch on the gessoed wood and used a glaze of payne's gray around the outside of the angel. I used paper towel to wipe away any gray that got on the angel image which ended up being the scratch marks you see on the wings and above the head. I added some charcoal pencil at the end to shade and outline the angel details.

Although I sketched the image on this one I do see two other images in the top left and top right which for me looks like more angels! Do you see them?

Shooting Stars . . .

Shooting Stars

mixed media on 9x12 canvas board

While we were snowbound in a blizzard the past couple of days I did some painting. You may remember seeing the sketch of this girl that I shared in this blog post. I wasn't sure at the time if I wanted her gazing at the sun or moon. But the darker colors called to me and there you have it! In shading her face with my water soluble crayons I added a rose pink to the mix instead of only salmon and I like the tone it gives. I added some stamping along her top because I just love that stamp but didn't feel it would fit in the starry background.

I tried the molding paste again and originally was only going to add it to the moon but decided to use it everywhere except her face and hair. I wish I had the patience to wait for it to fully dry! For the stars I used a q-tip with some iridescent pearl and smeared it around.

For those of you in the northeast hope you are safe and the blizzard is over where you are!

Spirits in the Storm . . . A New Abstract

Spirits in the Storm

acrylic glazes on 16x12" birch wood

I wish this piece was on a smaller piece of wood so that I could have scanned it. The colors look a bit richer in person. It was hard to get a good shot with the camera. Lately I am liking the scanner for taking images of my art.

I feel like it is easier working on smaller pieces of wood. But maybe that is because I am intimidated with a lot of blank space! I am still not tiring of my favorite colors so here they are again.

I titled it spirits because I see some ethereal beings over on the right. They look like they are floating in the air back to back. The colors look stormy to me in this one. Like things are being stirred up around them. And I feel as if they are being pulled toward the light near the center.

Thanks for all the great comments on my giveaway post! I am excited to see so many of you have entered!

Love is How . . . More Abstract Mixed Media!

Love is how . . .
abstract mixed media on 6x8" canvas board

This painting did not come out of me easily. Although I woke up yesterday with the vision for it in my head, knowing what photos I wanted to collage as well as the color palette I would use, to get it on canvas was quite another story! I used one of my photos with a heart in the sand. I used light molding paste along the edge and carved hearts into it. I laid down a first glaze of burnt sienna and then used payne's gray to make some shapes on top. I thought it looked awful but continued on to add my molding paste.

Then patience got the best of me and I couldn't wait for anything to dry! The more I tried to work additional layers onto the board the worse it got! And the more frustrated I became. It got to the point where I couldn't get anything to blend! After 2 hours of trying I finally walked away. I just couldn't get in the zone. I felt like I would never be able to paint the way I wanted to again. My mind was completely jumbled up.

Then after a few hours late at night I went back to it and tried again. And I was pleased to see that I could do it after all! And I continued with it until I felt it was finished.

The quote I used "Love it how you stay alive even after you are gone" is by Morrie Schwartz. It is one of my favorites.

And thanks to all of you for your great comments on my last post! I am excited to be trying out new things and your encouragement means so much!