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.

Jack's beanstalk

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on canvas

Just finished this painting. It's lots of layers, including some drips of high flow acrylics that I incorporated into the final composition. This is the biggest abstract I have ever painted.

More mixed media on Canson Montval

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

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

A couple more paintings done on Canson Montval acrylic paper. Top painting: fluid acrylics, high flow acrylics, Staedtler watercolor crayons. Bottom painting: fluid acrylics, Stabilo Woody colored pencils, matte medium.

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.

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.

Refillable markers

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

I'm still painting whimsical flowers but mixing things up. This time I started with a base of pastel scribbles and matte medium. Following layers were a mix of heavy body, fluid and high flow acrylics and glazes. I used high flow acrylics in refillable markers for doodles, as well as a dipping pen to draw the fine lines.

Big flowers

Painting by Vicky Christensen , acrylic on 30 x 24 inch canvas

Just finished this one yesterday. I scraped paint onto a blank canvas then went hunting for shapes. Several layers of paint and transparent glazes later it's a big vase of flowers.

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.

A neighborhood pond

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

I tried something new on this painting. I started with an underpainting in colors that are more or less compliments of the 'real' color. My goal was a more loose style and I wanted to stretch the boundaries with regards to color.

The underpainting is below:

Neighborhood walking path

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

My inspiration for today's painting is a walking path within a mile from my house. I exercised a little artistic license, but I assure you the real thing is quite pretty and peaceful.

Here's the underpainting:

The collaged paper added some color and texture. The finished painting was supposed to be more expressionistic but I couldn't resist my ingrained tendency to add detail. Maybe next time.

A Rose by Another Name

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

I've changed my name. Well, not my name, I'm still Vicky. But I have changed the name of my blog. Goodbye 'Learning to Paint', hello 'Staying Young at Art'.

I have wanted to change my blog's name for a while. Don't get me wrong, I am still learning something new with every painting and I know there will always be so many skills to work on. So I am forever learning to paint.

About today's painting: It started with a canvas on which I applied some torn painted deli wrap. Then, every time I finished another painting I took the leftover paint and applied it to this canvas. Some abstract shapes and color harmonies began to appear. In the meantime I had a photo that I have always wanted to paint, a rose from my old flower garden, and a few days ago it struck me that this canvas would be the perfect backdrop. So I slipped the photo into a plastic sheet protector and used quinacridone magenta high flow paint and a Fineline applicator to trace the flower. Add more paint and a couple layers of gloss medium and, voila, the result is a painted skin that I peeled off the plastic and collaged to the canvas.

Wrapping up one painting, working on another

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 18 X 14 inch canvas 

I'm declaring this painting finished! I added some glazed shadows then painted over a lot of the texture with Liquitex iridescent medium. So along with the glass bead gel it has some cool light reflecting qualities.

In the mean time I have been working on another small canvas. Below is a peek at the skin that will be used on that painting. I'm waiting for the medium to dry before putting everything together and keeping my fingers crossed that the painting will come together without mishaps.

Acrylic skin for work in progress 

String gel texture

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

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 12 x 12 inch canvas 

Today's paintings have been in the works for a few days due to the drying time between layers. This is another experiment based on examples I found in Jo Toye's book, Abstract Explorations in Acrylic Painting. I primed the surface with black gesso, let it dry thoroughly then drizzled on Liquitex string gel. Toye's book suggested using Golden clear tar gel, but I already had the Liquitex gel, a similar product. After letting the gel dry the next step is to paint white gesso on and quickly scrape it away to leave the black showing through the raised texture of the clear gel. You can use a credit card  (an expired one :) ). I used a Catalyst silicone wedge.

After scraping the white gesso I ĺet the canvases dry for another day.  Today I painted with transparent fluid acrylics thinned with a little glazing liquid. I really like the effects and look forward to using this technique again.

Floral arrangement

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

I decided to do a quick experiment tonight. My idea was to do a quick black pastel line drawing, then paint over the lines with glazing medium to fix the pastels and proceed from there. I prepped the canvas with Liquitex clear gesso first to give the canvas more tooth.

Here are photos of the painting in progress -

Pastel sketch

Glaze over sketch 

Add fluid acrylics for background color 

Paint flowers

Titan Buff glaze

High flow glow

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

This painting started with splashes of high flow acrylics. Then I decided to try dropping alcohol into the paint to make some blooms. I'm an impatient person and probably didn't catch the paint at the right moment, so the blooms were pretty subdued. But then I decided it might be fun to embellish what the alcohol did with a mixture of titan buff and Liquitex iridescent medium. After seeing the shimmer the iridescent circles added, I just had to add more bling with some stencils and glass bead gel. Today I added some glazes and finished with a few more iridescent circles.