As you have probably read in one of my previous post, I have a show coming up next week at Oh! So Good, and I am pretty excited about the whole thing. I started planning a little while ago, going through the paintings I have, assessing them and trying to figure out which ones I should submit. I came up with four pieces, all of various colors, which you can see below:
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Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, Untitled I (2011), Water Lily (2010), A Valley of Snow and Rain (2011), and Amor Boréal (2011) |
I love these four paintings together; I think the colors work very well and complement each other. As much as the black painting ties everything together, the contrast between the orange, the blue and the green is quite striking. My planning was almost done, the difficult task of selecting which painting would be part of the show was over and I was well on my way for my first show, when something great happen. I sold the green painting! I was really excited about the sale, but a bit bummed that I had lost a key piece of my quartet so close to the show. But, rules are rules, and every piece exposed during the show must be for sale so I could not show a piece that was already sold. I then set off to create another green painting with the same technique, and thought it would be interesting to show you the different stages of the process.
Such a painting can take me anywhere between 3 to 5 weeks, depending on the size of the canvas, the medium I use and the free time I have after my day job. In this case, I only had two weeks to complete the painting, from the initial stage to the final, but oh! so satisfying
varnishing stage!
Here is how I did it in less than two weeks!
I started with a 24x36 gallery stretched canvas primed with two coats of Golden Gesso to mask the nook and crannies of the canvas. I find that the Golden Gesso preps the canvas very well and allows the paint to glide easily on the surface. I then applied two coats of acrylic mixed with glazing medium. This becomes the foundation of the piece and it is usually the only step fully complete with a paint brush (I'm a pallet knife kind of gal!)
Once the base coat was dry, I mixed some green acrylic paint with Golden Flow Release so that the paint would be liquid enough to create a staining effect. I used this to create the swirls and shading you see in the background. I applied the paint first with a brush and then stretched it over the canvas using a larger dry brush and a cotton cloth. Afterwards, I mixed some Glass Beads Gel with green acrylic paint and, with a pallet knife, created the main shape of the painting.
After two days, once the Glass Beads Gel was completely dry, I used white acrylic paint with Flow Release to create some of the white swirls. Here I must admit that I used my fingers to paint. I usually apply the first coat of white with a brush, but then work it in with my fingers until I have the perfect shape. These white swirls help define the main shape of the painting and add dimension. I topped everything off with drips of yellow acrylic paint mixed with Golden Tar Gel.
After more drying, I added texture all over the painting with lime green paint mixed with Golden Heavy Gloss Gel. Using a palette knife, I scraped thin layers of the gel all over the canvas, sometimes using the back of the knife to create creases and texture. After this layer was dry, I did a black wash all over the painting using black acrylic paint and Flow Release, carefully stretching the wash over the canvas to outline every creases, swirls and edges. This, again, adds dimension to the painting.
Once the background was completed, I added the details to the main shape of the painting at the front. I used white acrylic paint combined with Golden Heavy Molding Paste and green acrylic paint mixed with Heavy Gloss Gel. Using a palette knife, I loaded it with white and green paint and skimmed over the rough creases created by the Glass Beads Gel and simply let the paint fell into position. Once these details were added, I splattered some white paint over the painting and added some yellow details to tie it all together.
Et voila! With four days to spare, I have a brand new painting ready for the show! I simply need to finish it off with two coats of Polymer varnish and it will be ready to go!
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| Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 24x36, 2012 |
You like the final product? Make sure to drop by Oh! So Good in the ByWard Market between March 12th and April 15th to take a look at it. A painting, like good dessert, is always so much better in person!
Well, better late than never... I started the piece today. You can see, on the left, the original picture we took during our three
hour long hike in a gorgeous area of the Escambray Mountains. This morning, with a delicious cup of Serano coffee, it took me a full hour
and a half to divide up the pictures, come up with the colors for
the foundation and "place" the picture on the canvas. Immediately below, you can see the results of what I managed to do this morning! Now, bare in mind that it is only the first step: an initial
thin layer of acrylic to transfer points of reference on the canvas. 
