Tunaless

Here is a mixed media piece of art that I created within a couple of days.  I purchased this awesome expensive canvas relatively cheaply at a city wide yard sale in February.  It had a painting on it that had some texture. I got the canvas for $10 but it is a $60 or more professional canvas.  I bought it with the intention of painting over it once inspiration struck which it did about 2 weeks after purchasing.

I decided to use joint compound and slather it all over the canvas. Thought it then had to much texture so I took half of it off and then used a giant bubble sheet and pressed it down on the canvas over the we joint compound to make an interesting texture.  I used a blow dyer to dry the canvas quickly. Then I used a couple of shades of red to paint the entire canvas.  I drew on a funny looking cat and then proceeded with the back breaking work of painting the cat in stripes.  This was painful because it was a large narrow canvas that I had on the dining room table and was bent over standing up the entire time painting.  The final process was to use charcoal pencil and highlight parts of the cat.

I really liked the outcome and so did many other people. I got about 2-3 offers to sell it but no one wanted to pay me the min. wage price I was asking for it for the time and materials.  In the end it worked out as it should. My boyfriend loved the painting and calls it "Tunaless" and encouraged me to keep it.  He states it reminds him of how he looks when he is hungry and doesn't have access to food as quickly as he'd like. :)

I'm in the Mood to Paint!

Throughout the month of December and into the New Year I finally had time to paint!  I'd purchased some canvases a while back and had some ideas of what I wanted to paint but finding the time was key.


First, I started with a little birdie collection of 4 small 5x7 pieces.  Materials used was acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, stamps, and canvas.  One painting also had joint compound involved so that I could play around with some more texture.  I posted on Facebook and I had two people that wanted one each. So I'm down to two and have no idea what I will do with them. I actually really enjoyed working small and would love to create a little birdie series. No idea what I would do with them though.

Then I started on a larger long canvas. I got this idea from a couple of hotel paintings I saw in my room when I went did the Kiawah 1/2 marathon.  This was all acrylic no other mixed media involved.  Each circle involved a lot of layering so it took longer than expected to complete the piece.  I also forgot how tedious creating branches can be.  I posted this on Facebook and immediately had a friend went it. I hadn't even completed the matching piece yet.  So, I went on spent another 3 days completing a similar but not exact matching piece with the intent that they be hung side by side.  Once my friend sends me a pic of them side by side I'll add it to this post.  They look a little different below only because one was a horrible picture I took at night (I should have known better) and the other was taken in my fluorescent light office.  They are actually the same colors and same design.