Wildflowers

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 20 x 16 inch Ampersand Hardbord panel

 I decided to recycle another painting. The original was heavily textured with acrylic gel applied through stencils as well as some collaged painted papers. I grabbed a few tubes of heavy body paint and applied paint randomly using a palette knife, leaving some of the old painting visible. I followed up with fine lines and scribbles of high flow acrylics, blotting with deli sheets. Today I finished it by painting some wildflowers using a palette knife and brush.

Here's what it looked like before:

Original Painting 

Finishing touches

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 16 X 12 inch hardboard panel 

I finally finished this painting. You may recall that this painting started with a surface heavily textured with Golden crackle paste. The surface is very absorbent, and when wet, paint will flow to all the little nooks and crannies. I got a little heavy handed with the darker and more intense pigments. My finishing touches were a drop shadow border, some very subtle Titan Buff glazed highlights and a final top coat of an acrylic faux encaustic mixture.

Happy Memorial Day

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

I decided to use my Fineline applicator to sketch some purple coneflowers with black high flow acrylic. Then I developed the painting with glazes of fluid acrylics. The coneflowers should be blooming in my front yard in another month.

I hope my friends in the US have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.

Revisiting old paintings

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

Sometimes I like to re-visit some of my old paintings and rework them. Sometimes I want to make improvements by applying techniques I have learned since the original painting was done. And sometimes I decide to completely obliterate an old one and do something entirely different. Quite often I decide to do reworks when I'm in a creative lull, so why not just play with an old canvas.

This painting was one I painted when I was learning about negative painting and practicing some techniques from a book written by Linda Kemp. This is what it looked like before I made a few changes last night:

Original painting 

I liked the dark and moody tone of the original but I just decided to brighten it up. It's just a cheap canvas panel, so why not play around with it. It's just paint after all.

My New Easel!

Earlier this month Artistsnetwork.com held daily drawings for various products from the Jack Richeson company and I won this beautiful easel. It's the BEST Deluxe Lobo. It can be adjusted to various heights. The tilt can be adjusted forward for pastel, backwards for painting oil and acrylic, and it even can be adjusted to a horizontal position for watercolor or other activities that require a flat surface. I love it!

Here's a closeup of today's painting, an experiment on Golden crackle paste:

I let the colors get too intense for my tastes. I still need to seal it. Maybe a faux encaustic finish will rein in the color intensity.

Tipsy Bouquet

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 16 X 12 inch canvas panel

Today's painting is an old painting I covered with light molding paste then went to work transforming into something completely different. Lots of layers of paint applied to the textured surface with a Gelli plate, sponge, Fineline applicator and brushes.

I'm calling it a tipsy bouquet because the vase is leaning, but maybe there's a double meaning ;)

Left over paint and string gel experiment

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and string gel on canvas panel

This little experiment started with a panel on which I had randomly brushed paint left over from previous paintings. Yesterday, on a whim I drizzled on string gel. Today I finished it with a glaze of translucent titanium white followed by some transparent glazes of color

Giving art a makeover

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

I decided to recycle an old painting, one of the first mixed media paintings I did last year.  This is what it looked like before I gave it a makeover:

Original painting 

I rotated it 180 degrees, then stenciled on black and anthraquinone blue to darken the background without completely obliterating it. I let it dry then came back with my favorite home-made glue gun stencil and titanium white to layer over the entire background. Then I used my Fineline applicator and black high flow acrylic to draw my composition. The finishing touches are glazes of fluid acrylics.

It's my prerogative

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

If you liked the painting I posted yesterday, sorry, but I changed my mind. I liked some of it but there were some issues I just couldn't get past. The background color didn't work well with the colors of the ellipses, the ellipses were too repetitive and I got carried away with the purple glaze. So today I made some major changes. I'm happier with it now.

One thing I discovered: Golden manganese blue hue works great with just about any other color.