Blowing Paint

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

I pre-ordered a copy of Chris Cozen's new book Acrylic Color Explorations a while ago and was very excited to receive my copy a few days ago. If you don't know Chris Cozen, she is a mixed media artist and educator. I really love her very colorful and whimsical style. Her newest book is full of excellent information about color and includes some examples with step by step instructions. One of the examples involves blowing on puddles of high flow acrylics with a straw to get interesting blooms. I found out my lung capacity isn't what it used to be! My rendition can't compare to Chris Cozen's work but it was fun to give it a try. I will be adding straws to my painter's toolbox.

Centerpiece

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

 I'm still experimenting with mixed media, and I'm trying some of the techniques in Acrylic Solutions,  written by Chris Cozen and Julie Prichard. For this painting I used a brayer to apply the first layer of paint. After I brushed on a second layer I let the shapes that emerged inspire me.

The photos below show the various stages and layers.

I used scraps of painted tracing paper that I had stenciled and stamped with leftover paint for the flowers and leaves. This is what it looked like before I glazed the final layer.

In Full Flower

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

I love Chris Cozen's art so I bought Acrylic Solutions, written by Chris and Julie Prichard. In the book both Julie and Chris document the steps for a painting. I decided to take a shot at following the steps for Chris' painting but did some things to give my own twist to it. This is the result.