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First off, a shout out to all you brave responders! You made my day and Betty gets extra credit for responding twice :) I am greedy and love the feedback; keep it up, my friends! Sooooo, yeah. I tried my hand at painting an abstract. You know how you look at abstracts in art galleries and think to yourself, "I could do that!" Welllll, maybe not. At least that's what I think for myself now. It was a little harder than I expected. I mean, there were so many places I could drag the paintbrush. So many colors I could choose. Daunting! Even in my initial decision-making phase, it was just too wide open. I ended up hunting for and finding a picture that gave me some direction and inspiration (see the gallery at the end of the post.) I had already decided to use acrylics instead of my preferred oils, because they dry so much faster. Of course, I am not too well versed at using acrylics, so there was that. I was painting over a previous attempt a few years ago of a Christmasy scene, so I already had a colorful underpainting. One of the summer workshops I went to this year was in mixed media, so I tried out one of the techniques we learned there: squashing up and soaking tissue paper in a watery glue and sticking it on the canvas for texture and interest. That was fun…and messy. Once it dried, I went to town putting on layer after layer of color, keeping in mind if the subject is cool (in this case) then the background should be warm, which works well if it's not needing a lot of depth and distance. Also trying to avoid large patches of unbroken color which just wears the eye out. Anyway…I'm no pro but here's the painting! Lucky for me, I can tweak it again next year if I want to. And, for the record, I have no idea why the tree is listing to the left. Must be my astigmatism.
3 Comments
sharon
12/7/2013 07:15:23 am
Love the texture in the trees and the background colors. What fun for the holidays.
Janet Walker
12/7/2013 11:35:47 am
I love it! It really expresses your joy of Christmas.
Betty
12/8/2013 08:49:36 am
I can now put away all my comments like "I could do that!" since you've admitted that the world of abstracts is hard! You have inspired me at the same time because your own attempt is just so lovely! A listing tree has all sorts of hidden meanings... the world is still off-center... my life is still off-center... but the loveliness of the color around makes it all so inviting. you know I could enlarge the photo you included and hang it over my own mantel! Keep it up, and have a Blessed Christmas! Leave a Reply. |
Hello! My name is Wendy and I am passionate about oil painting! Whether in the studio or out in Mother Nature, I get lost in the experience of capturing on canvas the moment and the feel of what I am painting. I pour my love and energy into every single piece of artwork and I hope it shows! This blog is a place where I can use words to talk about art, painting, life, faith, things that make me laugh, and things that inspire. I love every response, so don't be shy about leaving a comment...Archives
April 2023
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