Mixed Media Heron

Mixed Media Heron 11x15

I'm finally back to posting. Not only was my bout with the crud long, I had a 4 day workshop in the middle of it. I didn't want to forfeit my payment for it so I dragged myself into the studio and did what I could. There was a day of sort of messing around with acrylics on fresh paper and old paintings. We learned different ways of getting a variety of textures on the paper which would be our under painting. After that there was a lot of emphasis on composition and design. It seems like that has to be drilled into my head on a regular basis because I get these neat under paintings and then I don't know how to develop them into art that really works. I think I work more intuitively but that is so unreliable. I'd like to be able to make a plan and stick to it. Anyway, this heron painting was one of the paintings that came out of the four days. This was done over an old painting and coat of "gesso juice" (1 part liquid gesso, 1 part matte medium, and 2 parts water), textured with a plastic card. The dark blue background is thick watercolor, the heron is gesso juice and watercolor. The workshop instructor was Kathleen Conover. www.kathleenconover.com Look her up, she does very interesting work and I found her to be a wonderful teacher.