Big sunflowers

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic mixed media on 14 x 18 inch canvas

This is the third painting in my flowers series, employing sgraffito on black gessoed canvas.

Iris

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic mixed media on 16 x 12 inch canvas

Today's painting is the 2nd in my series of floral paintings done by using sgraffito to 'draw' the flower on a thick layer of paint/gloss gel applied to a black canvas, and layers of transparent glazes and tinted gel.

Transformation

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 24 x 18 inch canvas

 I decided to give an old painting a makeover.  Just finished this afternoon.

Below is a snapshot of the old painting.

Fractured flowers?

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 16 inch Canson Montval paper 

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 16 inch Canson Montval acrylic paper

I've been playing with Canson Montval acrylic paper. The top painting was done with fluid acrylics, with extra embellishments from Posca pigment markers. The bottom painting started with a base of brayered-on fluid acrylics, then layers enhanced with Staedtler watercolor crayons and matte medium, plus final layers of translucent and transparent glazes.

Loving the Golden OPEN acrylics

Painting by Vicky Christensen, Golden OPEN acrylics on 20 x 16 inch canvas

I've been wanting to paint this waterfall for a while. I finally got around to it yesterday and finished it tonight. This was inspired by a photo I took in the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden a few years ago. I painted it with pastels a couple years ago. This time I painted with Golden OPEN acrylics over an underpainting done with fluid acrylics and matte medium. I went wild with the color.

Here's the underpainting:

Recycled flowers

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 20 x 16 inch canvas

I decided to recycle an old boring painting and this is the result. The underlying layers are collaged painted deli wrap, heavy body and fluid acrylics applied with a palette knife and some stenciled areas. I like the texture left by the deli paper and heavy body paint. I used a silicone wedge to scrape back some of the upper layer of paint to let the underlying colors and texture show through. The detail work was done with high flow acrylics and a dipping pen.

Dipsy doodies

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 12 inch canvas

Just finished this mixed media abstract incorporating lots of doodles in marker and pen and acrylic ink.

Color explosion

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 18 x 14 inch canvas 

This new abstract is a mix of high flow and fluid acrylics embellished with fine lines from a Fineline applicator and a dipping pen.

More flowers and doodles

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 12 inch canvas 

Here's another vase of flowers, in time to celebrate the new year. I'm still getting the hang of using a dipping pen to doodle on canvas. Just when everything is going well out comes a big blob of high flow acrylic to clean up. Even so, I am beginning to see why people get into Zentangle.

It just wasn't working

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 14 x 18 inch canvas 

Yesterday was one of those days. I started painting with an idea in my head but things didn't go as planned.

If you can believe it, I started with the intention of painting an abstract version of a colorful village, one of those you see in a travel brochure for coastal Italy, for example. Once I got into it, it just wasn't working for me.

So I started to layer more paint and got a very colorful canvas. I started scraping and painting circles. It looked like this after a while:

I liked the colors but it still wasn't doing anything for me. Since the top layers of the paint was still wet (I was using Golden OPEN paint and medium) I started scraping away paint. It might have been a rash decision  (word of advice, don't make important decisions at 1:00 AM). But what the heck, it's only a painting.

Today I decided to follow the texture that was left on the canvas and started glazing on color. It ended up looking like one of those mosaics that people make from pieces of colored glass. I decided to use a mix of manganese blue hue and titanium white for the 'grout' highlights.

Finished abstract

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 20 x 16 inch canvas 

This painting started from some deli sheets that I had painted with leftover paint. Today I used a painting knife to add more color splashes, some stencils and some glazes. Here is the final result.

Another Experiment with Golden OPEN Acrylics

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas 

I had some paint left over from yesterday's painting so I decided to do a little more experimenting. I put my palette into my Masterson sealable palette box yesterday and today the paint was still quite workable. No wet sponge necessary.

I painted this subject once before with pastels. The reference photo is one my nephew took in Hawaii, which accounts for the black beach. I think it turned out OK for my second effort with Open acrylics. When it dries fully I might try glazing it to make it more luminous and perhaps tone down the blue of the ocean.

Update - I experimented with an orange glaze of paint and OPEN gloss medium to tone down the blue in the ocean. It didn't go on as smoothly as I would like. I probably should have waited another day. Here's what it looks like:

Update, Jan. 1, 2016

I decided to make a few changes to the waves and the reflections of the sun. I brought back some of the blue tint to the whitecaps, reinforced the glints of sunlight, and glazed the foreground black beach with ultramarine blue  (which didn't photograph well). I think the waves look too repetitive but I am happier with the colors now.

Experimenting with Golden OPEN Acrylics

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 9 x 12 inch canvas panel 

Craftsy has a clearance on Golden OPEN Acrylics, 60% off the list price. I have been thinking about trying them, so I took the opportunity to buy several colors. They have been sitting around a few weeks, calling to me. I finally answered the call. The longer open time gives you time to blend  (and make mud if you aren't careful ;) ). It takes some time to get used to them, but I think I'm going to like them for some types of subjects. I like to glaze a lot, so we'll see if the paint dries fast enough to do layering. I probably will have to be a lot more patient  (not my strength) and will need to do more experimenting, but so far I like them.

Early winter scene

Recycled painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 16 inch canvas panel 

I reworked another of my earlier experiments. I glazed over the original with Titan Buff and did a little subtractive stenciling to give it some texture. Then I painted the scene you see above.

Enjoy the season folks!

Happy holidays

Recycled painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 20 x 16 inch canvas 

I decided to recycle another painting. This one went through several iterations before it became what you see above. First I wanted to embellish an old painting by adding pastels so I gessoed it with clear gesso to give it some tooth. I painted some flowers with the pastels then tried to blend the pigments using paint and matte medium and the result was blah. I ended up covering most of it up with paint. Then I just started painting circles, doing several in one color, then the next color and so on. I decided to glaze the circles with a translucent mix of Titan Buff and glazing medium.

Then I didn't know how to finish it until I got the inspiration today to paint Poinsettias. And voila, today's painting!

Edit: here's a better photo, taken in indirect sunlight

More recycling

Recycled painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 12 inch canvas panel 

I'm in the recycling mood. This painting was a quick experiment: start with a very colorful old painting and turn it into a floral still life.

This is the old painting (imagine it rotated 180 degrees):

Original painting

I glazed a coat of Golden Titan Buff over the painting, placing a stencil in some places and wiping away some of the glaze for additional subtle texture. Then I quickly painted the outlines of the flowers, stems, leaves and vase. Then I followed up with some glazes of color to fill in the still life.

The style is pretty loose and primitive but I like the results. This was fun!

Abstract collage

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 20 inch canvas 

It seems lately that no matter what I plan to paint I end up going off on a wild tangent. I started this painting with fluid acrylics that I moved around on the canvas with a deli sheet. It was getting so messy I switched to a palette knife. The next day I got distracted by the dried paint on my palette and decided to collage it to the canvas. That led to more collage with paint skins and scraps of painted deli sheets.

By this time I had a really colorful composition. I didn't want to get rid of all the rich color but I did want to rein some of it in. So I muted some of the color with a glaze of Golden Titan Buff.

Recycling a painting

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 12 inch canvas 

This painting has been recycled more than once. In fact I can't recall its first iteration. In any case, a few months ago, after buying stencils and watching a Chris Cozen video I made my first stab at mixed media. I gessoed over an old painting and gave it a little texture by pressing some stencils into the gesso. Then I slapped on some color, added a few stencils and called it a day. It has been sitting around since. Finally this week I decided to add some more layers and I give it a new life.

In case you are wondering, this is what it used to look like:

Imagine it rotated a quarter turn followed by layers of stencils and glazes.

What is it?

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 16 X 20 inch canvas 

For this painting I started by dragging paint across the canvas with deli sheets. That was followed by stencils, stamps and splatters. As so often happens, I intended to make flowers but instead it evolved into what you see above. Is it cross sections of exotic fruit or painted stones? It's whatever your imagination says it is.

When I was outlining the shapes I grabbed a tube of cerulean blue and what I thought was magenta. The 'magenta' was darker than I expected and the tints it was making weren't what I expected but I was liking the results so I kept painting. It wasn't until I went back to do a bit of glazing that I discovered the 'magenta' was actually prism violet. I'm happy I grabbed the 'wrong' color by mistake!

Watery Sunset

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 20 x 16 inch canvas 

This painting is another experiment with lots of layers. I wish I had taken a photo at each phase. Suffice it to say that the finished piece looks nothing like the beginnings.

I topped this one off with a layer of 'faux encaustic' that was made from a recipe in Sandra Duran Wilson's Acrylic Painting for Encaustic Effects. I didn't go very thick with the layer.