Saturday, April 30, 2011

Is that John Wayne behind the Mesa?

I have been experimenting again and this time with acrylics and gels. It all sounds very scientific and complicated but it is simple and fun.  All you have to do is spread a gel onto a painting surface and then see what happens.
I wanted to try some earth tones and just started spreading some thinned acrylic paints on the canvas. I let them drip and follow the crevices made by the gel, using my brush as little as possible.  As it started to take shape it reminded me of a Southwest desert scene. That is what makes this so much fun, you don't know what you will create.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

An artist's work is never done

Our group decided to do some Plein Air painting before the weather got too hot to be outdoors.  One of our group lives right across the canal from a rowing training camp. Rowers from all over the world come there to train, including Olympic athletes. So, being patriotic, caring, supportive women we thought we would do some judging along with our painting. Let's just say not much flora or fauna got painted that day.



oh my!!

some very happy painters!!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Experimenting

I have been looking at lots of different types of art lately.  Collage of course, which I really am intrigued by, and some very non-traditional art which doesn't necessarily use paint but all kinds of different materials.  I saw some wonderful painted figures with great dresses made out of shredded paper in an art magazine.  They were so unique and whimsical I just had to try one.
My granddaughter loves Marilyn Monroe so I thought I would do a homage to Marilyn combining collage and a newspaper skirt. I had just the photo to do this.  I also had an article about her and decided to use that for the collage background.  If you look closely at the collage you will see that everything pertains to her and there are even some old photos included in the background.  I photocopied the old photo, mounted it on card stock and then cut it out.  I glued it on to the collage and then did the skirt.  I only  used paint on her lips and shoes.  I decided to use a silver frame with an Art Deco feel for the finishing touch.  My granddaughter loved it and so did I.