Painting 20 Cactus Flower Blue Bird Dream is an 8″x8″ acrylic painting on masonite
Today is the last day for the official 30 paintings in 30 days with Leslie Saeta’s blog but I think I’m going to try to continue and get my 30 in just not in 30 days. I have 2 more paintings in the works right now so hopefully I’ll be able to finish in a timely manner. What a difference painting nearly everyday has made! I’ve accomplished a lot of new paintings and have painted more in this past month than I did over several months last year. I’m glad I joined along.
This painting has taken on quite a transformation. I have to say it started out butt ugly but as it began to tell me what to do to it and me not continuing with its original plan, I saw it in a new light. Sometimes you just have to throw some paint down to see what happens, sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not. And in this case, it was a disaster.
But three blue blobs later of acrylic ink and it began to show itself to me as a blue bird and two wildflowers but the background was too rigid and plaid looking. I like more organic shapes and this was far from it before the blue blobs. I ended up hating those horrible straight lines. So, I went over the background with a lighter color trying to knock it down and then noticed my brush marks created nice looking petal shapes. I experimented with some violet colors and a new painting began to emerge.
It was still too dark though so I added some white in with the pinks and voila! I started to like it. The little bird called out to me right away in the blobs but the flowers slowly revealed themselves. I’m happy with the outcome and this for some reason reminds me of childhood. Maybe it’s the retro feel it has with the colors, I’m not sure. Anyway it is done!
Oh, I did want your opinion though… if this were your painting for your walls what color frame would you think would look best? I’m thinking an off white frame because I think black may be too dark and harsh but I’m not sure if the off white is a good pick, your thoughts?
Here are a couple of the work in progress ugly stages…
I just found out today that a show that I attended last year that I did really well at is going to happen again, hurray! Art in the Park will be June 21st 2014. I’ll have lots of new paintings to show by then, so come back and see. I have a feeling 2014 is going to be a great year!
