Orange Featured Art of the Day

This 24x24 acrylic abstract was awarded Feature of the Day on Milliande's Art Community - I am honoured

It is bright and beautiful - it reminds me of the sunsets here - hopefully it starts off your long weekend with some sunshine

I am working on a collage right now (3D effects) and some impressionist series
Hope everyone has a good weekend

Something Different

Decided to try something different - this one was painted entirely with my fingers

I am calling it my Spirit Tree ... acrylic on canvas 18 x 24  - it was healing and therapeutic, totally creative from my imagination 

This next one is Mystic Circles - can you see the theme here? It is brightly coloured acrylic on canvas 14x18 using a gel medium so it has lots of texture and gloss 

I am experimenting and creating and you can expect the unexpected ... it feels good to be able to do this 

Please email me if you have any requests - some of you have been wanting my artwork which is great - am so happy you like it

Peonies on 30x40 canvas

This painting was difficult for me physically but creatively I had a great time with it ... this is totally from my imagination - I wanted a fun floral featuring Peonies in soft tones
It is the largest canvas I have worked on and my neck, back and arms are suffering for it so am resting now
I have to pace myself a bit better - smaller paintings are difficult because I cannot bend my neck or back over to sit and work on them, and this size was good because I could stand and use my entire arm rather than wrist and hand motions but it took hours or work and I am mentally and physically exhausted so I think I was a little too enthusiastic about it - this painting is for a very special lady who loves Peonies and has a birthday coming up soon

I hope you like this ... I miss my peonies so this painting is really fun to look at each morning 

Floral progress

The floral acrylic canvas is coming along - building up with sponges and light washes and background

Above is a close up of the flowers being put in and the background leaves starting to come along
There are quite a few layers of work here and I have been experimenting with different items to get more comfortable = amazing what you can do with a canvas and some paint - this painting is not from a photo reference - it is being painted with music and my imagination which is the way I love the most
Thus no predicting how it will turn out and I do not feel locked in to any particular way of painting -- there is more freedom of expression and creativity this way
Here is the painting in full 30 x 40 inch canvas

Remember this is an Art Journal, so I post progress pics and am keeping this as a journal of my work as it comes along - Today is classical music I think - for a nice change
Thanks for all of your support and hope you are enjoying this - also wondering if the lighter background is better for you - A happy day to all of you

Laying down the Base for the Floral Peonies

Hi everyone - I have read that people prefer LIGHT backgrounds on blogs with dark text... rather than the black background that I had -Will be playing around a bit with it but would love some input
Also have some recent progress pics

In the previous post I showed you the setup - did a wash of acrylics in a really "watercolour" fluid without mixing so it had pinks lilac darker purple all flowing into each other

then a sponge with some more purples and pinks and mixed in a bit of soft yellow

Now I am doing the saran wrap again....

just along the bottom so the green leaves (see how some of it is pale yellow and different shades of green - I mixed and drizzled and sponged and then put on the saran all wrinkled) and it dries like that so I can't do much now... I guess I have to go make dinner and knit - but fun to see it tomorrow and how it turns out 

Also used some masking fluid tracing along the previous stems formed with the saran wrap - and glazed over with another shade of pink  - I want it to be soft pastel but the music today - Supertramp - is dictating otherwise and we are getting lots of fun colours - the brush and the music paint the canvas, and today the music was adding some great colours - DREAMER played quite a few times... I wonder if that might be relevant and the music is talking to me - I know my teachers used to say I was a dreamer ... hmmm... I don't actually have a problem with that 

Let me know what you think of the brighter blog - maybe it is easier for you to read - apparently a lot of folks prefer it 

Thanks to all of you for your comments

New one 30 x 40 inch

oh my goodness.
starting off with a wash of light purples and pinks so it mixes in with mauve and lilac - pinks showing through
then while wet, I applied saran wrap all over in crinkled bits - so it will dry with patterns I can work with - I am thinking a "floral with PEONIES" for someone very special ... my grandmother will be 105 and her favourite flower has always been the Peony - this will be a tribute to her and how wonderful she has been to all of us...this lady... I could tell you some wonderful stories

You can't tell the size of it from this photo but it is the largest canvas (30 x 40 inch)I have ever worked on - more freedom to experiment - so this is the canvas covered in saran wrap all crinkled up in bits
here is a close up of what it does to the colours ...

See how it pushes the colours around and then leaves stems and shapes as it dries - I just peeked and there are little bumps and circles of purple and it is all working perfectly - no rules - I LOVE NO RULES

Also today I joined a women's art community and met some wonderful artistic creative ladies from all over the world - some of us are freezing cold, some of us are boiling hot, some of us were going to bed and some of us were just waking up - technology is great - we can now connect with people and share ideas and resources and inspiration - I am excited to have a whole new world of friends out there - thank you all for being part of this art journey with me
I am working on setting up a website so I can sell my art online - right now am working on commissions and you can just email me if you would like anything and we will discuss canvas size, prices, colours etc - THANK YOU to all of you

Exploring Creativity PART 2

Finished...
This is 20 x 24 mixed media on canvas - acrylics using sponges and random materials out of my imagination
Part 1 showed you how it was coming together - this is the final piece
If you enlarge it, you will see words floating in the painting and a butterfly and a man (wearing a scarf for those of you who knit out there, that is important) with a horse - I love how the glow of light is coming from the door and the lattice work and fence were made with masking tape and an old credit card
The music made this one happen for me and it was great fun!!

Exploring Creativity

Exploring creativity and art expression through exciting new techniques means taking a leap of faith

This piece (20x24 inch canvas) is being created as a collage with acrylic (Golden OPEN) and gel transfer

I have masking tape, paper towels, saran wrap, magazine pieces and found items

using pen and acrylic and sponges to paint this

Lots of great music playing as usual... today the music is from the GLEE cast - all the songs just keep comin' and the inspiration from them

The music makes the painting for me


Yesterday I spent hours cleaning up the studio and cleaning brushes and organizing

 What do you think?? I have two easels - the Mac is fabulous for the music and reference photos - the lace table hides my printer and cleaning products - it is finally organized and I am free to explore - I would rather be painting and creating so off I go... This studio is my favourite place in the world

Beach Dreams

Good day to all of you... a change of scenery today - a beach scene "just because" it is getting warmer and summer is on the way. This was a requested painting for a very special lady and hopefully it will help her drift away and dream of the beach and relaxing
This painting was really different for me - it was done ENTIRELY with a PALETTE KNIFE
I had a good time with this and enjoying using the palette knife and all of the effects one can achieve without a brush

This is oil on canvas board 12 x 16 - perfect size for her wall 

Many of you have enjoyed reading about the process of painting and seeing the stages of the work - my work usually takes a lot of time and many layers - 

The palm trees were interesting to try to paint with a palette knife but I think they were fun to do and would have been difficult to get the 3D effect with a brush - these palm trees are really thickly painted and stand out in the painting

I am trying to experiment with styles that are more loose and expressionistic or impressionist - with more of a focus on colour and light so using the palette knife was an exciting experiment and I am pleased 

I have been reading a lot of wonderful blogs by different artists and enjoying learning how to make an art blog - thank you all for your support and your comments 

I am off to create more ...