Think Spring - A New Abstract

Think Spring came about because the painting underneath it was UGLY!  GESSO to the rescue!  This time I applied all the paint with a Princeton Catalyst Mini Blade #5.  I only have #1 and #5 and I am so buying the rest of the set.

While the gesso was still wet I applied different shades of blue, green and yellow paint to the canvas.

 

 

I don't remember my thought process but I decided to add white gesso towards the top. I do turn my paints around and add more paint here and there to see different angles of the painting.  I so wish I took a close up of the texture. It's so cool looking.

 

 

As you can see I added more white gesso and green. It almost covers up the blue but I let it peek out a little.

I found a close up!!!! It still doesn't do it any justice.

 

 

When it dried I added a squiggle of dark blue and white paint to finish it.

 

 

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You can see more of my art on Instagram.

Creating a Koi Pond with Stencils

One (there are many) favorite artist is, Claude Monet. I am so drawn to his paintings especially his water lilies. I could stare at them forever and so I decided to create my own water lilies painting.

I started with a 11x14 cradled wood board and painted in with TCW Black Gesso. Then using acrylic inks and water added green, yellow and some blue to the background.  When all the paint dried I used TCW433 Wildflowers stencil to the background.

Using modeling paste I added the fish from TCW499 Koi Pond stencil. 



 

 

 

 

After the modeling paste completely dried I painted the fish and then added the lily pads.

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the fish. 

 

I also added flowers to the lily pads with modeling paste and painted them in magenta.

Here is the finished piece. I really enjoyed creating this and there will be more in the future.

 

This painting was put up for a Breast Cancer auction where one lucky winner took it home.

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Finding Art - Florida

On New Years Eve my niece was married. I was in Florida for two weeks finishing up on wedding decorations, bachelorette party, family parties, and then the big day setting everything up. It was perfect. It was amazing how everything came together.

In our hotel I found these prints. I love the lines in each. I drawn right to them.

This one I loved because its a map but printed on glass. The wall was a pale yellow so it enhanced the map colors.

 

 

After we ordered the cases of champagne, we wondered around the liquor store. I know nothing about wine other than I like red. I usually buy wine by their interesting labels.  Here are few of my favorite labels.

 

This one I loved the pink and gold together plus I love trees.



 

 

Love this one. I wish I bought it to taste it.

This is a very striking label. The picture doesn't do it any justice.

 

The simple labels draw me in every time. 



Aren't these labels pretty. Just loved the colors.

 

Typography - my favorite. Gold letters win, win!



 

 

 

Like I've said before .. look up, look down, look all around, Art is every where!

 

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Mixed Media Art Tags: I Spy .....

Stencils!  Can you see them on these tags?

There are many times I use stencils just for texture and you can't really see them. Stencils also can be used for many other elements in art.

Lets start with this art tag. I used two stencil images; one you can't really see and other you can.

I start my art tags by going through my drawer of scraps.

Then pull out scraps I want to use and start adding paint to the tags, scraps of paper and TCW Modeling Pastes.  This swan tag I painted the tag white and added the Ornate Border stencil.

Then I used acrylic paints, paper scraps to create the background. My mother painted the swans. I took a photograph of her painting and printed out the swans on card stock, fussy cut and used on this tag. To add the water I used the Ornate Border stencil with modeling paste and painted it in shades of blue.  Do you see the first stencil? You can see it a little behind the green branches behind the swans.

My next stencil I painted the tag in bright colors, used TCW modeling pastes, and paper scraps.

 

Stencils Used: TCW773 Connected Dots, TCW756 Magic Ladder (green paint), TCW764 Number Scramble, TCW761 Solemn Branch.  Mediums Used: TCW Champagne Gold Modeling Paste, TCW Black Modeling Paste

The new metallic modeling pastes by The Crafters Workshop are fantastic. Not because I'm on the design team but because I truly love them. There are a must try!!!   I also used the Ornate Border stencil again on the front of the tag, rub-ons, and scrap paper at the bottom. The butterfly is from my drawer of scraps.

My tags look so much better in person. You can see all the layers that were used to create them. Here are two more art tags I created for The Crafters Workshop. You can see how I created them by clicking HERE.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you so much for stopping by and reading it.