Mixed Media Paintings

I finally did some painting. I was encouraged by a couple of co-workers who commissioned me to created some art for their offices.  The top image is a large piece of canvas and has a ton of texture but it's really difficult to see from this picture.  I used a ton of different paints, stamps, joint compound, and did some jelly printing. In addition I cut out some different sized butterflies out of paper to create templates and dipped in a plate of white paint. Then I pressed them on the canvas and rubbed them before gently peeling off the paper to real the image.  This was a fun piece to create.  It took a couple of nights to complete about 6 hrs.

This piece didn't take very long at all to make. About 2.5 hours.  I had purchased a canvas at Michaels about a month before because it looked neat and was 60% off. The canvas was pre-printed with the writing on it and cost only about $5 or 6 dollars.  Then I used Alcohol Inks, gauze (new but left over from my surgery), cotton balls, rubbing alcohol,  stamps and permanent markers to create this piece. I was recovering from a painful surgery and was weaning myself off the medication and trying to not be depressed about feeling miserable.  Since I couldn't sleep much during this time I spent time creating.

This piece I created before the other two.  I had been wanting something for my front door for spring/summer time but didn't want to spend a lot of money.  I went to Michaels and found this US wooden plaque and it was reduced to $4 or 5 dollars.  I brought it home and painted this in about an hour and now it's been hanging on my front door. Brightens up my home. 

Life is a Balancing Act

I created this simple image today as I facilitated an art therapy group. The directive was to share something about yourself. I created these birds on a line and wrote "Life is about finding balance and trying to maintain it." I'm sure I've seen similar quotes before but this was my own version.  I've also created similar birds in other projects before.  I shared with the group that although I put 5 birds on the line (which isn't an even number) that it still means you can find balance. That often times life isn't perfectly balanced and we have some sort of stressors but that we can work on balancing life the best we can at any given moment. It's hard to tell but the white edges of the paper were colored black with a permanent marker.

Feel free to share your favorite quotes here...

Inspirational Affirmation

I created this mixed media piece the other day. I found a bunch of words in a magazine pile in the group art room and took the ones that resonated with me. I used a canvas board, layered tissue paper, followed by the words, used watercolor over top, sprinkled a dash of glitter and then rubbed in some dark acrylic brown as the final step. In between each layer modge podge was used. I enjoyed experimenting with this piece and felt the colors and materials turned out well together.