Friday, February 11, 2011

Escape!

The Creativity Prompt for the month of January was "White".  I sure didn't need this prompt to make me think about the unusual amount of snow we have been having.  But I did need to have more positive thoughts about the white stuff.  What struck me about all this snow was the fact that it's not just white.  The morning sun tints the snow with a warm orange. The shade of trees and houses makes blue patterns in the snow.  The late afternoon sun causes a magenta glow.  With a camera, you can sometimes capture those colors of snow.  With a paintbrush..... well... it turned out to be a little harder than I expected.

My idea for a mixed media painting was to put down a lot of texture, covered by snow, in all its shades of white.  I started a 12-inch square canvas with collaged pieces of newspaper and other papers, some  corrugated cardboard, a photograph, and tissue paper.  Then I covered it all with diluted gesso to blend out all the words and other dark items.  Then for the hard part - turning that into a painting that was shades of white.

Even after I worked through tinting different sections of the canvas, the painting didn't have any feeling  or meaning in it for me.  So I started straying from my original intent and began adding elements with my newest art supplies, oil pastels.  Still the painting didn't please me.  With the little circles I had added, this was beginning to look like an underwater scene.  A Fish!  I had just drawn a fish as a watercolor practice piece, so I photocopied that drawing in three different sizes and added them to the canvas.  One of the fish was situated on part of the background that sort of resembled a net, so what if I added some cheesecloth over and around the fish to make the netting more visible?  A few more elements, and more coats of polymer medium, and I'm happy with it.

So, I know it's not White, but I've decided to forget about snow.  Escape is all I can think of right now.

5 comments:

  1. It turned out great. I really like your fish. The piece makes me think of summer!

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  2. Escape, oh yes I like this, swimming with the fishes, that's me. Please take me with you. xox Corrine

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  3. Isn't it interesting the places art will take us? Who knew it would be on vacation, right? Love it. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. What an interesting evolution. And I like the finished piece.

    But I also love the original concept you had about the snow and all its reflected colors. I hope you continue to ponder that and look forward to what you come up with ;-)

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  5. Love it! Love had it started out as one thing adn you just let it develop. Beautiful! I worked on an old prompt remember the 'mail art' one? Well i finally got around to it for Valentine's Day if you want to take a peek.
    Hugs! Deb

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