The Sarah Tree 16x20"
Well, what can I say. I have somewhat neglected this blog since its inception. Time to start making a few more regular posts.
Since the last time I was here, I have returned to painting more seriously. That's something I didn't do for nearly 20years, due to the responsibilities of being a lone parent. But now that the girls have all 'flown the nest', I have found myself with the time necessary to 're-learn' the skills which I had previously spent many years accruing.
Rather than return to my old favourite medium of watercolours, I chose to re-invent myself using acrylics. Although the basics of composition and colour harmony remain the same, I had a big shock coming to terms with the consistency, quick drying time, and permanence of this new medium. No more was I able to apply paint with the intention of discretely removing portions of it again, nor blending washes into those which had been laid previously. Furthermore, I discovered that colours did not mix in the way to which I had previously been accustomed.
Most of my earlier work I had been able to create using a very limited palette of alizarin red, cadmium yellow, and cobalt blue, with the occasional addition of viridian green. It soon became apparent that I was going to have to extend my range of colours somewhat. Only now, 18 months along the line, am I becoming able to work with just a half dozen tubes of paint. However, for the sake of convenience, I more often use up to twice that number, depending on the painting.
So, here I am, with new paints, canvases twice the size of the papers that I was used to, (another concept that required some coming to terms with), and a handful of brushes. Now, how the heck do I manipulate this thick stuff into the images I want to produce?
I was very fortunate in being directed to the WetCanvas! site. There I found a bunch of people, some beginners like myself, and some with years of experience and professionalism, and all willing and eager to share both their knowledge and their work.
Having gleaned the basics of the medium, and taking the general advice to just play with the paint, to experiment, and find out first hand what it would and wouldn't do, I set about attacking a 16x20" canvas. What great fun that was, to hold a brush in my hands again, and to just let my mind explode in a riot of colour. I soon found that it was fun to blend the colours on the surface rather than on the palette, bending and sculpting great blobs of the stuff into representations of the forms inside my head. Some things worked, others were miserable failures, but it was fun, and I learned so much from that first experience.
That first painting in acrylics took me over a week to create. Nowadays I would probably complete it in just a few hours.
This is the outcome of that first encounter.
