I have been away

I have been very remiss in painting and posting to this site, and I apologise.

I moved into Town and to a much larger home and have been so busy getting it all organized that my Art has fallen by the wayside.

As well, I have been going through a "Dry Period" a condition that many artists can relate to.

This does not worry me, as when "It" strikes I will be ready once more to put paint on Canvas and take off once more.

My living accommodations are perfect, I am in a quiet well treed area that has multiple types of Family homes.

I as well, now have a balcony which is something I missed so much in my old residence.

I have been decorating up a storm. Another Art form to be sure, and a slow one at that

(Something that takes a lot of patience for an impatient woman)

So, here is my progress.

The next two photos are my inspiration for the Living room.
I loved the Navy Blue of the first and the 

Classic Blue and white Minimalistic of the simple white of the furniture. 

The painting begins

edging.
(we all know how fun that is)

Finished wall, baseboards to follow

Coffee table I purchased through Verage Sale

 for $15.00

Solid wood and real heavy!

I sanded it down and painted it the same colour as the wall.

My lamp....

I fell in love with this lamp years ago.

it was in the back room of a literal Junk shop.

I loved the shape and form of it and have dragged it around with me forever, 

or so it seemed.

Finally it will have a place of honour in my Living Room.

it was a sick beige and the shade was in terrible shape.

But to recover / replace the shade professionally would have cost me 

on the upwards of $150.00

so I searched and luckily on Pinterest I read about

"Styrene adhesive"

yep, the transparent plastic that covers shades is called just that!

on line I went looking for local businesses that either sold Styrene or recovered lamps.

I got lucky.

and purchased 2M. of said styrene and will do the shade at a later time after all the painting is done.

The chair,

I have an IKEA barrel chair, it is a well made piece of 

furniture that I like sitting in as I rarely slouch when sitting.

I wanted to re-cover it and found a site on-line called 

"Bemz"

https://bemz.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoouShejT2wIVD6vsCh1hGgIjEAAYASAAEgLJQPD_BwE

While searching Bemz's site I came across a Designers Guild,  Christian Lacroix fabric called

Exo-chic Medetranee

and promptly fell in love.

To complicate things further, I ordered the cover for the chair

(after a great deal of saving, LOL)

long before I had seen my two inspirational photos above.

Little did I know back then that this chair and those two magazine photos were to lead the way

to what I am now working on almost 18 months later.

So in a very non-professional way, my new home is coming together.

as an artist I have to admit that my favorite colour is green.

Navy Blue never entered my mind one bit!

I like the peacefulness that this blue gives me.

I love the minimalist intrusion that this style is extending to me.

by the end of the Summer I should be done.
I will use a green as an accent colour in a very small amount.
one cushion that I found suits this perfectly

 The green

The cushion

The other three walls will be a pure white. and they will have floating shelves 

that are painted in the opposite walls blue as a contrast.

And hopefully Before September I will have it all done!

The view from my balcony will bring in the green

and during the Winter, the white from the snow will do the same.

Be well everyone. "Later.....

t.

"Joy!"

"JOY!"
Acrylics and Mixed Medium
Birch Panel

24" X 24"
(SOLD)
 

This painting began (again) with a prepared background 

that I had composed quite a while back.
As I said earlier, I do Backgrounds  and set them aside until the right idea comes to mind 

for what I have to work with.
I realize this seems to be a slap-hazard way of creating any type of art, but it works for me.
(What can I say?)
When I thought of a whale breaching in the Ocean 

In my Minds eye I was picturing joy and freedom.

Firstly I set out deciding the positioning of the Whale

and what part of the Breech I would portray.
I drew a small sketch
(Yes, believe it or not I have now drawn a Bird a Fish and a Whale )
I knew (again) that I wanted to portray water and an immense span of it.
So I set up the boundaries of the level of the water.

(the white goop shown below)

and

 that determined the positioning of my main focus.
I poured the Liquitex pouring medium just below the top 1/2 of the board and it did not pass my barrier (thankfully)
I (at this point) just had one line of pouring medium

(as shown in the below photo)

Again, please understand that I am working by the seat of my pants here.

 I do not know any tried and true way to do this so I improvised with what I had on hand.
And luckily for me, it worked.

 I then penciled in the Whale with a water colour pencil and painted it in.
above and below what was now the water line

Close-up of painted water/wavesThis photo shows how the Pouring medium makes the water realistic as in a splash!

 

Detail

I hope this kinda gets you all into trying new techniques and products.
Yes, I know Pouring medium is not a new product, but it was to me.
I love working with new ideas and methods.
Yes I fail at them as well, but it sure is fun  trying.

Sometimes it is well worth trying to use a new art product without really knowing what it can do.
I knew that Pouring medium dried crystal clear and looks like glass.
With this work I used the medium in layers letting one level completely dry before adding another.
I wanted the water to look and feel like actual waves.
I think I achieved what I set out to do!
Later everyone
~~Kathleen

"Ocean,Kelp,Sky"

"Ocean, Kelp, Sky"
Acrylics and mixed medium

on Birch Panel
24" X 24"

I started experimenting with mixtures of Blues on a Birch Panel a while back.
The beauty of this method is that one never knows what the actual end result will look like.
You end up with what the paint gives you.

on this one I applied Gold leaf across one side on an diagonal
Let the whole thing dry, placed it on the shelf.

I then promptly forgot about it

until the other day.

While flipping through the Rack
I came across this one and thought
"Would a fish ever look great on this!
so I penciled in a fish.

I was at complete odds with myself as to how I would paint in a fish 

so it would look  like it was in actual water.

Not as if it had been applied atop the already prepared  background.
As a mixed media Artist, I collect things.

I collect a lot of things

and 

like a Raven or a Magpie, I especially love shiny things.

yep, Blue foil.

I then got the insane idea that I would cut out individually each strip of foil 

and compose the flowing fins as individual pieces.
Affix them to the background and have wonderful movement.

And I set out.

three days later I had a reasonable looking  Beta Fish

that actually had movement.

The next photo show the progress of this endeavor!

When the Fish was done I taped off the board following the Gold leaf

and

poured Liquitex pouring medium on the blocked off area.

You don't want to know how long it took the medium to dry.

You can see in the photo below 

on the upper Left corner how the area is now like Glass.

(reflection)

 I then  (again )waited for it to dry more.

after the Pouring medium was totally dry I rubbed a deeper blue over the Gold leaf

(Blue and yellow make green)

and had my kelp

the top right hand corner is a matte finish as opposed to the Glass like bottom with the Kelp as a separator

a rather poor detail of the beta Fish.

"Seasons"

"Seasons"

(Taken at an angle to show the varied sheens)

16" X 20"
Acrylics and Mixed media
on Canvas

Recently I had the pleasure of being gifted trial sizes 

of 

Liquitex products.

among these were two trial sizes of

spray paint.

so, of course I had to try them.

I had begun a canvas with tree trunks , 

intending to let my imagination run with whatever happened.
What better than Leaves?

This was the Partially finished canvas I started with.
Birch tree trunks atop Gold and Copper Metal leaf.

Obviously, this was not anywhere complete,
and
for some reason I just didn't tune into what I had.

Stuff was sorely missing on this canvas.

 So, I grabbed one of my Stencils and started out with the Gold paint

then added leaves of Silver on top of  them.

and the shape and form began.

I notice that I had left a serious gap in the middle of the canvas

So I added more Gold & Silver leaves in the middle,

toned down some more  of the Metallic paint

by washing the canvas with a very light leaf green

and scrubbed it off,
I then faded some of the leaves in and out.
The Seasons of the year fade in and out with grace.
and so do the leaves on the trees.
I wanted the leaves to look like some were emerging and some were fading away.

and ended up with this;

I like the Liquetex Metallic sprays, you can paint Acrylics over them.
(Something that is next to impossible with other Metallic Spray paint.)

I will always hold the actual  Gold and Silver Leaf dear to my heart.
I love working with leaf.
That said, the effects of these sprays is great!
They are almost too bright (Shiny) for my liking, 

but that can always be toned down 

with an overlay of acrylic wash or paint.
I hope you enjoy this painting

and how it came about.

It was fun experimenting with new products.

~~Kathleen