Expressionist bouquet

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

This started out as several layers of stencils and random marks then sat for a while waiting for an inspiration. Today it magically became a vase of flowers in a sort of expressionist style. Look closely and you'll see the underlying stenciled layers.

Spring blooms

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

This is a little painting inspired by the flowering crab trees on our boulevard.

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.

Fun flowers

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

Just finished this one. It started with blobs of paint that I manipulated with deli paper, then layers of stencils, high flow acrylic drips, collage of painted deli paper and high flow acrylic applied through a Fineline applicator. I finished it off with translucent and transparent glazes.

Here's how it progressed:

Quaking aspen

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

I haven't done a serendipitous abstract painting for a while so I started a couple new paintings using deli wrap to spread color around. After some layers of drips and stencils, I finished this one today. I like the shape of aspen leaves, so that was my motif for this painting.

Convention bounce

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

I tried something new this time. I collaged newspaper clippings to a canvas and followed with layers of high flow drips, stencils and fluid acrylic glazes. I kind of wish I hadn't done the white outlines but maybe they will grow on me. Or maybe I will use glaze to tone them down.

Edit: I decided to glaze the white outlines. So I updated the photo. I took this one in daylight so the colors look different from the other photo.

Tulips!

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

I decided to rework another painting. The original was a canvas with a lot of colorful stencils and abstract shapes. I loved the colors but it just didn't have any composition to speak of. I have been wanting to do more floral paintings so I thought why not use this old painting as a background for a floral in a more expressionistic style. So here it is!

FYI, this is the old painting:

Ellipse

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

Here's another experiment that started with black gesso followed by applications of white through stencils and Fineline applicator. I didn't try to preserve the white lines of the elliptical shapes when I glazed the color on top. I debated coming back with the Fineline applicator to bring back the white but decided against it.

April showers bring May flowers

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

Today's painting is an experiment that started with a bottom layer of black gesso followed by a stenciled application of white gesso. .I made one of the stencils with a glue gun. The remaining layers were done with glazes of fluid acrylics as well as outlines of high flow titanium white via a Fineline applicator.

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.

Falling leaves (and other stuff)

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

Here's another painting that started with a layer of stencils, then high flow acrylic drips. I also stenciled on some glass bead gel leaves before finishing with glazes.

High flow high jinks

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

I started this painting last week, then took a little break for a road trip to New Orleans for my niece's wedding. We had a blast. They celebrated with several touches of the local culture and cuisine, including a second line parade from the ceremony to the reception. This was my first trip to New Orleans and it ended way too soon.

So I got back home at lunch time, took care of some business, then finished this painting. This was going to be big blossoms developed with high flow acrylics and spritzes of water, but blossoms didn't appear. Instead I ended up with some colorful creatures floating in a shallow stream.

Mixing more media

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

Here's a painting I just finished. I started this one a few weeks ago, when I collaged several Gelli prints on a canvas. Then I was stuck and didn't know how to finish it.

A week ago I had some red-tinted molding paste left from another painting and decided to stencil it on this painting. It still needed something else, so I stenciled some violet-tinted glass bead gel yesterday, and stamped a few butterflies and flowers last night. Then I added some glazes and got a little carried away.

Today I added a few more touches. I think I'm finally done. I had no idea where this was going when I started, but that's part of the fun.

The gelli print collage, before adding stencils and glazes

Stenciled Trees

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

This painting was an experiment. The goal was to use stencils in a dompletely different way. I wanted to do another autumn themed mixed media painting, so I started with some gold, red and green fluid acrylics as a background, then stenciled on many layers of more transparent color. Tonight I finished with tree trunks and branches and some negative painting to define the outline of the tree canopy and fill in the sky. This painting was lots of fun.

Last of the Summer Flowers

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

 In honor of the end of summer and the beginning of fall, here is my latest painting.

I have another work in progress, a collage of gelli prints, but I haven't figured out how to finish that painting. So I decided to divert my attention by working on this painting. I wanted a lot of color. So I started with stencils, then amped up the color by dropping high flow acrylics and coaxed the color to spread and bloom by spraying liberally with water. I added a few more stencils and a bit of glass bead gel. The photo below shows the painting after the initial phase.

Underpainting after applying stencils and splashes of high flow acrylics 

 Below is the painting after I glazed around the main shapes.

Painting in the intermediate phase after glazing around shapes 

More stencils and glazes

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums, paint pens

Here's today's painting, another one with lots of stencils finished with layers of translucent glazes. I used Posca water-based paint markers to draw the branches and outline the leaves.

More drips, drops and textures

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

 This is my first time painting on Ampersand Hardbord. I prepped the surface with Golden GAC 100, followed by a couple layers of gesso. The first layer of paint was drips and spatters of high flow acrylics. Then I collaged with scraps of painted tracing paper. For the next layer I covered the board with raised stencils of light gloss medium. I glazed over the stencils and wiped off the excess, letting the stenciled areas act as a resist. I liked the vibrant colors so I decided to not follow with translucent glazes to calm down the color.

Here is what it looked like after the drips and spatters (and spritzes of water):

Floating leaves

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

 This is another experiment with fiber paste and raised stencils. I wanted to see if I could get some watery effects. I didn't get all the effects I wanted, but picked up some ideas for future paintings.

Update:
The color in the upper part of the painting was bugging me, so I decided to glaze it with phthalo blue. Here is the updated version:

Same painting after glaze

Here is the painting in earlier stages. When I was at this stage I thought it was too light. Now I wish I would have kept the lighter hue.