Grounded

 

"Grounded"

24x24x1.5" wrapped canvas (frame shown for display purposes only)

Professional Grade Artist Materials - Acrylic Paints and Oil Sticks

This is my newest piece that really took its sweet time in coming together.  In all honesty - not really its fault, but mine.  I was at a point of burn out this summer in more than one way.

We had a very unusual summer her in Northeastern Alberta (Canada) - it was very hot for well over the usual few weeks scattered here and there over the few months of summer we get here. Instead, we had a good 10 or so weeks of hot (and humid) weather, and needless to say, painting was did not happen in about eight of those. Then not to mention  the heat, I had put a lot of pressure on myself over the past two years to really focus on my art and push myself in all aspects of it.

This piece began early July and after a two month break of absolutely zero paint to canvas I got back at it in mid September. It was a real struggle to get back into the process, but with encouragement and positive input, I was able to finish it last week.

Here are some photos to show you how it evolved. My original goal was for this to be very limited palette, it didn't take long for me to go off the rails...

 getting the paint on

coverage and markings

trying to do something different

frustrations (or what I tend to call hissy fits) and cover ups

restarting...what you didn't see was me adding 

color to get the punch I felt it needed

staying the course

almost done, just needing that punch up of colors.

The final result...

This is the perfect way for you to see all the stages in a painting and just how much you will and won't see at its completed stage. 

Many artist fret over the layers of paint they apply to a piece - I prefer to call them stages. For me, layers don't matter as long as you get to where you want to go. It is a frame of mind, don't get hung up on the numbers...after all, this isn't 'paint-by-numbers'!

Golden Paints: Quinacridone Magenta, Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium, Phthalo Green Blue Shade, Titanium White (&/or Zinc White depending on the stage I was at)

Thanks for stopping by, I look forward to seeing you again soon!