Painting a nightmare

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling black birds in my hair. The noise of flapping wings and movement felt so real... I tried to escape the feeling, but it followed me through the day. Finally, I gave up, and put it to the paper in the best way I could. 

My big moleskine journal is the best place to catch anything I want to express.

 I didn't paint it on the easel (pictured above), just wanted to see how it looks. I am so extremely in love with my easel that I have to see how anything looks on it :-) I painted it on the table (as seen bellow) using only a brown and white. 

Black birds are gone. Colorful ones are soon to come.

Light and dark

I'm still in brownish, muted tones. Trying to play with darks and lights. For some reason that intrigues me and I am trying to push myself to go darker or lighter that I usually would.

A new painting

101 BIRDS - Painting #38

Is it bad to say that I love the paintings from my 101 Birds collection? Whenever I finish one, I think it is my favorite. But then I look back and feel like a mom and her children... I love them all. I'm waiting to come to a "full" number, like 40..... or be half way - 50, and then I'll show them all together. It will be like a big, colorful and whimsical bird quilt.

PS - I am LOVING comments on my giveaway! So much fun to read what your favorite soul food is - both the real food kind, and one for the artistic soul. Thank you!

How I used the acrylic skin

I love it (the acrylic skin)! You don't really see it, unless you are looking for it - it just melts into the collage. I found an old painting, cut it in half and used it as a base for my collage. The only remaining visible part is the heart. Everything else is a mixture of different papers I had on the desk.

I often sketch little birdies on anything available. They are quick, simple sketches, but I can't make myself throw them away. The above one was sketched on a napkin, the other one on sticky paper.

 I wanted a little journal with soft covers for a while now, and couldn't find anything "exactly" as I want it in store. Don't know why I didn't think of making it myself in the first place. My stitching is not the best (working in almost complete dark is my excuse)  but it is still good enough to make me happy.

Danielle wrote that acrylic skin looks like a wax painting, and I smiled when I read it because at that moment I was adding an encaustic layer on top of my collage. 

I love how the sketch done on a napkin disappears into the collage...

At the end - a quick answer to Heather (as I don't have her email address, and don't want to seem rude by not answering her question). The crackle I used on my angel is the same or similar crackle to the one you describe - the one you rub a darker color on when it is dry and cracks show up. You can find more information about different products I use in a post I wrote here. Hope this helps!

In her hand

I finished one of the angels, but didn't have time to take proper pictures, so this little detail scan is all I have to show today.

Green Birds painting (video)

I almost forgot that I recorded painting the birds I showed yesterday. It was my experiment with black and yellow. As you will see in the video, most of the painting was done in those colors. I added light glazes of brown and Payne's gray at the end. It feels like Friday.... I really want to say "Happy weekend", and have to keep reminding myself that it's not...

101 BIRDS - Painting #37

Color Explorations - Yellow & Black

Did you know that when you mix black and yellow you get green? I didn't. It makes sense, when I think about it, but I never thought of it before I played with them in my pretty red moleskine. 

Of course depending on which black and which yellow you choose, the results are different. My plan with these color explorations is not to get into color theory. I am not mixing clean pigments, primary colors etc... I just took the black I have (mars black, Golden) and all the yellows I could find and combined them. Look at my palette! Love it!

Here is a page I painted in my journal. One yellow, one black, white and the biggest challenge of all - no stabillo pencil.

This is with different yellow, and it mostly is yellowish, but when you look at it there is a lot of green too.

This one is on wood. Quick, expressive, just seeing what can I get with a limited palette.

Here I used all yellows mixed with black and white in different proportions.

Although I liked it, I wanted to push it a bit more so later I added other colors. I filmed a video of it, so as soon as I get time to edit it, I'll show you what happened.

If you try this color combination, post a link in the comments so I can see :-)

Love

- 36"x24" painting on canvas -

No matter where I took the photo, from which angle or what time of the day, I couldn't make it look the way the painting really looks. Not a good thing when you are selling your art online....

There is so much dimension and depth in it, and yet it doesn't transfer well at all on the screen. So I'm showing what I have and just please take my word that it actually looks much better.

I am off to see my boyfriend now :-) Maybe tomorrow I'll have better luck with my camera.

FLY

- mixed media on 20"x24" canvas-

I finished recording my class for SoulFood workshop, but couldn't stop playing with the technique, so I continued by applying it to a canvas. The photograph you see below is one of my favorites. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw that my little phone was able to capture it. I used it as inspiration for the canvas.

It is pretty tricky to show how it really looks, because there is a combination of metallic colors, matt surfaces, texture...

It changes when looked from different angles and light...

101 BIRDS - Painting #36

8"x10" mixed media (collage, acrylics, casein, pan pastels, colored pencils, sharpie) on cardboard

I love Damian Rice, and could listen to his music for days. Which I did before, but not anymore because it makes me very melancholy and sad and it takes a while for me to shake it off. Today I enjoyed I did listen to him a little bit, and decided to write some of the lyrics on my little bird piece. Why not? Mr. Bird might have asked his lady friend just that?  Do you see the other lyrics or know the song?

101 BIRDS - Painting #35

 Here is a painting a did more than a month ago and forgot to share. It might be my favorite of all the birds. I had an urge to use the encaustic media and play with textures, so that's what I did.

I embedded real flowers (dry, pressed) in it. Couldn't believe that fragile hydrangea petals would survive the heat, but they did and turned out so lovely!

I added as much texture as I could, while leaving the color palette almost neutral. It was really a lot of fun and I could hardly make myself stop. After I finished, I immediately went to Judy Wise's blog to order her Encaustics Workshop e-book. Watched it, loved it, learned a lot but haven't done anything with it yet. I guess my muse has had enough wax play with this one painting for now.

Hope you'll enjoy the close ups of textures :-)

Today I...

Today I went jogging for the first time in a month (after trying to heal a hurting knee). I am not sure that my knee was happy, but I was. I enjoyed the crisp air and always welcome sight of water.

Today I tried my new "phone leash" and loved it!!! I go on daily walks/runs and always have my phone in hand so I can listen to books and music and also to take photos at moment's notice. I don't want to count how many times my hand tired and the phone fell... This simple contraption keeps it safe on my wrist and ready for action :-)

Today I took a picture of my friend the bird. I wish the phone camera was better so that I could capture this guy more clearly. I consider him to be my friend, because I see him often and love his calm energy. Don't think that it is mutual, because although he lets me come close, he usually becomes annoyed with me and flies away...

Today I made THIS lovely soup. It is velvety and rich in flavor and nutrients and just what I wished for. Appropriately called "Luxurious 7-Vegetable and 'Cheese' Soup" (no cheese in it).

Today I painted on a lacy piece of tree bark...

Today I started a new painting....

I was very conscious in recognizing all the good in this day and being grateful. It makes a difference when we really try looking at things expecting to see/feel/experience/share good. 

Happy weekend!