Day 24-Time March On

Time Marches On

Acrylic on Masonite 8 X 10

This is another experimental piece. I put gesso on a Masonite board. Then I used molding paste smoothed over a stencil to make the raised texture areas. After that I began layering acrylic paint. The final layer was a gold acrylic that was thinly applied with cloth over the clock faces and different areas around the painting. Then I put the line work in with Caran D'arche which is then sprayed with fixative since it is water soluble.

Day 23- The End Is In Sight

Landscape Tile

Alcohol Ink on tile, 6 X 6

Putting the alcohol ink on white ceramic tile that you can buy at a home improvement store is a good way to experiment. It is easy to manipulate the inks and to completely wipe them off with alcohol if you want to do something different. When you get a design that you like, you let it dry and then coat it with epoxy to make it permanent. This tile has 3 shades of brown ink and silver. The silver tends to float on top of the other ink and makes interesting patterns.

Day 22- Squeaking By

Gold Arch

Collage, 5.5 X 4.25

It was a rough day with nothing working out as I had hoped it would. I was ready to give up on a posting for today and went into my studio to tidy up. I came across an unfinished collage that I started for an entry into an up coming art show. All it needed was a recognizable object in it to qualify for the Small World category.  I decided to find a bird to fly into my strange little composition. So here it is. I guess, when in doubt, put a bird in it! I hope things go better for the rest of the Challenge; 8 days and 8 paintings left!

Day 21- Many Layers

Finding Joy

Mixed Media on gallery wrap canvas

12 X 12

I was so inspired by all the great abstract art on the Challenge web page that I decided to go all out and have some fun. This canvas has been painted over so many times, it must have at least 3 maybe 4 layers on it. The last layer was a collage with a tissue paper background. I covered it with gesso and made texture marks in it. I knew I wanted to put some corrugated cardboard on it and words. I chose "Finding joy" in my word collection and went from there to the finished painting. This took me 3 days so I'm needing to do catch up for tomorrow but this was so much fun, it was worth it.

Day 20- We're On A Roll

Day at the Beach

6.5 X 6.5

Acrylic Ink and Acrylic on Yupo

We are in the last 10 days of the 30 Day Challenge and rolling on to the finish line. Today I did a more controlled acrylic ink painting. It is possible to control the inks on Yupo if you allow the layers to dry. Since they are so wet and juicy, especially if you use water with them, allowing some drying time between the colors helps if you want to do a more controlled painting. In this case I put in the blue first, let it dry and then put in the beach. After that dried I painted the palm trees in layers, allowing each layer to dry. Finally, I used fluid acrylic to paint in the figure. Not quite as much fun as going with the flow. It just depends on what you want in your painting.

Day 19- An Old Love

Blue Grotto

Acrylic Ink on Yupo, 5 X 7

After working and struggling with Alcohol Ink I decided to go back to an old love of mine, Acrylic Ink on Yupo. I used to do a lot of these just for the fun of watching the ink move around on the slick Yupo. I add water to the surface first, drop in the ink, move it around, spray it, drip it, and then just let it do it's thing. After a big piece dries, I find the things I like in it and just cut that section out. Or, working on a small piece, limit the colors and watch it develop. If I'm feeling less adventurous, I allow layers to dry and then can paint one on top of the other. I think I prefer it to the alcohol inks because it dries more slowly and I can manipulate it more. 

Day 18- Tangled Woods

Tangled Woods

collage. ink, and acrylic 5.5 X 7.5

This one was a struggle. I started it as a collage on Thursday,I was not happy with the result so I covered it, partially at first, with acrylic, then I tried some stenciling and finally ended up with the negative trees stencil. At that point I needed something to focus on so I put my stand-by bird stamp in it. I still don't like the pink on the lower left but have decided to move on. I'm hoping for better results for tomorrow's post.