Going in Circles

#73 Going in Circles ~ 20x17 Mixed Media on Board
This one started as a trash painting...and I mean that literally.

At the Mary Todd Beam workshop last October, Mary had us collect collage material from the trash can for use on a painting. Under the paint is plastic paper towel packaging, bits of doily, classmates failed paintings, foil and other trashy treasures adhered with matte medium. Today I wanted to clean my palette so I used what was left on there..to play around on the highly textured surface... I guess you could say that I used trash paint too. hehehe.

#73 Going in  Circles 20x20 Mixed media (c) 2013
Not sure if it's completely done... I've cropped it a bit on the right side (with Photoshop, not actually) And I might try to make it work as a square composition, my favorite. I'll look at it again tomorrow.


Worked some more and ended up here... (on the left) Calling it finished. :-)

living and learning

#72 Big Poppies~ 28x18~ Acrylic on Collage
(c) 2013 L. Everett Finn
Now that I've completed this larger piece... (with the wrinkled paper applied to watercolor paper... then painted with watery acrylic...) I think the process lends itself better to the smaller scale. While an interesting texture... it's not enough texture at this size. Living and learning.

(Big Poppies are going to try to get in a show this week... we'll see if the juror agrees with me... hopefully not.)

Kroger Bouquet

# 67 Kroger Bouquet~ 12x9~ acrylic on Yupo

Yesterday, I intended to drive to a local nursery green house to pick up some potted plants to paint... hoping for flowering plants...Freesia, or something inspiring. I only made it as far as the corner Kroger (our local supermarket). I did this quick (20 minute?) painting at the tail end of my painting day from the bouquet I got there....(I worked most of the day on a large poppy painting that I'm more excited about)
The set up would have liked some more dramatic lighting... a spot light would have been nice. This is what it looks like with flat, even, daylight fluorescents. :-)  I sort of like the color combo though... it's different for me.

Poppies Abstracted

#66 Poppies Abstracted ~7x5~ acrylic on collage
I have a larger (24x18 inch) one of these begun...I decided to test out some background colors on a smaller size. (Getting smarter in my old age, right?) This process has no do-overs. Gesso won't help. (Though it would make an incredibly textured surface to do something completely different on.) But these watery pure and transparent effects...it's a one shot deal. Yikes stripes.

sweet pea 5

#63 Sweet Pea 5 ~ 15x11~ acrylic and collage on paper
This sheet of paper is the first "real" sheet of watercolor paper I ever bought. It was expensive and because of that...it's 25 years old. Seriously. I have carried this precious sheet around with me for years, afraid to do anything on it. This last studio move had me reconsidering things like that... What the heck was I waiting for?  The poor paper was just sitting in my flat file year after year. (Makes me think of the island of misfit toys.) Finally, last week it came out...was quartered and is now supporting some paint and collage.
"Well, hello beautiful!"

sweet pea one

#56 Sweet Pea One ~ 11x7.5 ~ acrylic and collage
Last week, I went out with some of my friends from the old "hood. Jill asked me about one of my challenge paintings that was of sweet peas. I drew a blank at first... then a few moments later thought of the painting she was referring to. I'm pretty sure it was this one. When I painted it, I wasn't thinking of any specific flower, but after she said "sweet pea" I realized, Oh Yeah! I love sweet peas. My sister grows (and fights with them) every spring.

Perfect subject to do this experiment with. I painted (too quickly... i was excited) some sweet pea shapes with watered acrylic onto water color paper. Then I painted more watery acrylic  sweet peas on a crumbled sheet of soft transparent paper. (I have a roll of it from somewhere... maybe my mom's sewing pattern making paper?) Let them both dry then glued the crumpled paper on top of the painting. I love how it veiled the previous painting... and it took the paint really interestingly after it dried and I added a bit more. I love me a new technique.