Basking in the sun

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

This painting started out without a plan other than to experiment with texture. I used a painting knife to apply Golden light molding paste to the canvas then pressed various objects into it to give it some texture. Some objects worked better than others. I ended up with a circle in the upper right, so I decided to put a sun there. The rest of the painting evolved (or should I say revolved) around the sun. The painting initially had a rainbow of colors moving out from the sun, but I didn't like the intensity. The surface was too textured to use glazes to tone it down so I finally settled on the dabs of broken color to portray the sun's rays. I decided to add some flowers to the butterflies I had originally stamped into the molding paste, and decided to use Golden fiber paste for the flowers. It was fun painting the flowers since fiber paste is so absorbent. All in all, this was a fun painting.