HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to 2018!
I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful time ringing in the New Year! I know I did - my hubby, our kids and I enjoyed spending time with our best friends and their children, playing some darts and watching the New York Times Square coverage of the ball drop. I am one of those people. I just. have. to. see. it.
Anyway, I am starting off the new year with a painting I did in a painting studio class during my time at East Carolina (I have many that I did as we had to do a painting a week and each were based on a different abstract concept or theme. I shared another painting New Years eve that I did during this time where I actually went in last week and re-painted her to correct a lot of flaws that my younger self did not see. Check her out here: Smoke Entering the Room
Today's painting I am sharing had the concept "Ice Melting on an Iris". Pretty abstract, I mean, there were a LOT of different visual takes on the concept. I went with something a bit more straight forward. I chose to show the remains of the ice that melted on the iris - an iris flower petal with dew drops. Irises are one of my favorite flowers and so this was a really fun painting to work on at the time. This was done in Acrylics and painted on a sturdy paper that was wet and stretched around a wood frame (making a stretched canvas type structure). When the painting is done you simply cut it off and your paper stays nice and crisp, no warps or bulging of the paper as you work on it from the wet media being used. I think I spent about 3 evenings working on this particular painting and I remember how challenging the dew drops were to replicate.
"Ice Melting on an Iris", 18x24, Acrylic on stretched paper:
Let me know your thoughts below - I would love to hear what you think :) Also, feel free to share what you did for New Years, what kind of traditions do you enjoy completing on the last day of the year? What resolutions did you set for yourself, or did you set any at all? Personally, I want to focus on spending more time on myself - more creative time, more physical fitness and continuing to work on getting financially ahead! These kids are getting older and man do they get expensive - cars, school trips that cost as much as my house payment and college.. shew - pray for me!! LOL
As always, y'all, thank you to the moon and back for taking the time to stop by and say hello! Your continued support means the world to me! Until next time... STEEM ON!
Wanna check out some of my recent posts?
Click on the thumbnail images below
I'm liking it; I've never worked in acrylic (though I hope to some day), but is "stretched paper" different than a canvas?
I really like the colors and the overall "feel" of the painting; I could see this hanging in someones living room.
I didn't really do anything for New years and I made no resolutions lol Although I think i'm committed to doing a lot more art than I've ever done before (I usually take really long breaks, like year(s)) - I'm trying to get more involved in the steemit community and I'm going to start a video series "Learn art with me" where I just show my techniques and tips I've picked up for any new/er artists who are interested. I think I actually like teaching art more than doing it lol
Acrylic is not my favorite, but easiest to control and it dries really fast. I like the flexibility of it - using various mediums you can create a lot of effects and get a lot of fluidity to the paints and slow down the drying more so as to achieve better blends. That is primarily why I used it because these had to be done in a week, so unlike my large 4'x5' paintings that we did twice a semester and were in Oils, the Acrylics allowed me to work on this quickly and have a fast dry time.
Stretched paper is just regular thick paper - I think it was a Strathemore sheet - I got it from the Art department of the student store - they had all the best supplies. It was like a sturdy sheet that was great for Watercolors so it had a bit of texture. What you do is fill a basin with water and you dip the paper in it, not for long but just enough to get it all wet and pliable. You then take a stretcher frame that you would use for canvas, but instead you wrap your paper around it and staple. When it dries, it is taught, just like a drum. VERY cool technique that I learned from that studio painting professor. It kept the paper nice and sturdy so that as you painted you would not have to worry about the paper curling or warping on you. Once it dries you cut it off with a utility knife and it is nice and flat!
I really liked this painting - it actually did get placed in my Aunt's living room - HAHA - good guess!
I was really involved over the summer - two major events derailed me a bit, but I'm back with full force and I'm also excited to get back into a more continual involvement.
I LOVE to create, when I am feeling inspired - I like to think I am a decent teacher, but I typically have a hard time slowing down and not going too fast — and I have a hard time organizing how I want to go about explaining something sometimes. I really look forward to watching your series - I love learning from other artists!
wow that paper stretching has me really interested! I need to know more! Do you know the exact type of paper? I'm wondering what the poundage is, my normal watercolor paper is 140 lb, and I know it goes much higher.....huh, maybe 140 lb paper would fold/bend over a frame....
Currently I either don't pre-soak my paper or I will bite the bullet and soak it and then tape it down to MDF boards I created. I really hate pre-soaking my paper since it is such a pain, but I do think it helps with the warping issue; but what you described sounds even better.
As always, great work and I need to try painting 😄
So are you back for good?
LOL! Yes YOU DO - I think you would do well with it because your other digital work is so great!
Yes, I am back. We had a lot of loss in our family and friend circle - so I have been feeling a bit out of my creative zone the last half of the year. I am feeling re-energized again though - so I am riding the wave and gonna push myself to try and post daily if not at least multiple times a week. Thank you for stopping by - you are building such a great following. I love seeing all your projects!
I understand having difficult seasons. I finally dove deep into an silly animation project yesterday, I delayed it many times because of lack of focus/motivation - or feeling overwhelmed.
Glad you'll have a more routine presence here! :)
And thanks for your support! :)
And THANK YOU!!