December 2016 – Sunshyne Art & Design

Under The Sea

At the outset, I will start by saying that this is going to be a long post…I am in a Ramblin’ Mood. 😀

I’m having an art day today. My fave kind of days! A little art a day keeps the doldrums away! 🙂

Sometimes I sit down to paint with a plan….at least a pre-sketch. With my large whimsical landscapes, that is often how it goes. Although doing the sketch in my idea book is often freeform thought as well.

Today, however, with one wooden coaster left…I just wanted to throw some paint on it, and see what I ended up with. No plan, no pre-planned effects, just intuitiveness(is that a word? :P). Follow the brush to faraway dimensions, so to speak. 🙂

Started out with blocks of my fave colors…blues, pinks, and purples, and deep turquoise. Then dripped(haha…dripped!…more like blobbed!) black paint on one end to have it drip down…letting gravity help me. Could not get the flipping paint runny enough (in an old tube of black) so I kind of globbed it on(yes, spellcheck, I made up a word! Deal with it! hahaha) then added more water to the globs, and banged it down on the table to get it moving. It kinda did, kinda just stayed globby(spellcheck is super suggesting now! lol). Then it fell over onto the piece of paper towel I had down to soak up the excess. Great, I thought. Until I turned it over and LOVED the effect it made! Channelling Bob Ross again…no mistakes, just happy little accidents! 😀

blog-1 blog-2

Whilst “playing” with all this black paint, I got a little on me. hahaha I really feel artsy girlish when I end up covered in paint! Is it really fun if you don’t get messy? I don’t think so!! 😛

Needed a chocolate break…. 😀

BTW…My most favourite 8tracks playlist, is one I made specifically with my painting in mind. It is my most popular one there, so I am not alone in loving it! It is long, and full of gems. 🙂

70s classic rock is my go-to jam. I don’t quite know why…but because it is so damn groovy, I can really get into my art zone. *grooves* I think because it channels the kid in me. I was super attached to my little FM radio, and spent nearly all of my allowance every week on records…then cassettes…then CDs….

Music, in general, is such an intrinsic part of my being, but music from my childhood…beats all of it to grab the best part of my heart. Oh boy…that chocolate was good…look at that poetic paragraph! hehehehe

Now for some periwinkle blue blobs. Again, not runny enough. Maybe spraying with water to loosen them up? Moved a little, but mostly just got really wet! Suddenly the imaginary lightbulb over my head lights up…artsy girl grabs chunk of watercolour paper….lets little painting do another face plant…this time with a slight, non-malicious push! mwahahaha! 😛

blog4 blog-3

Voila! Cool little branches!! Loving this now. Starting to look like something….underwater. Also reminded me of a scene from the old Spiderman cartoon! Right up my little geek girl alley now! lol

spidey2

Plus, now I have a little “print” on my watercolour paper for a future something. Bonus… a twofer! 😀

Since my hands were already considerably covered in paint, why not just go with it, and get in there with my fingers?! I love the interesting marks I can make with my hands. Like personalized little touches. Peace baby. 😀

Needs a fish, methinks. With a heart tail…’cause hearts are my thing. Not too many of my paintings don’t have one…be it hidden or out loud. 🙂

Then it was just adding dainty little brush strokes… some lines, a few dots, intuitively here and there…enhancing….making marks,making abstract somethings…

Needs flowers now…another hippy girl thing of mine. 🙂 And of course… a little luminosity in the form of sgraffito marks revealing all that glorious hidden color…a little floating medium, a scratching tool, and dainty little lines, swirls, and more hearts….

Done finally…only took me most of the day…but what a nice way to spend a day! Behold, “Under The Sea”! 😀 Happy Wednesday! It is Wednesday, isn’t it? hahahaha! 😛

Daydream Progression

I did a mini painting the other day on a piece of salvaged wood…a solid wooden coaster, actually…using acrylics, and the encaustic wax effect I wanted to try.

First (on the gessoed piece) the background…random color and marks. As is often the case, I photographed it, and posted this at my online art shops because I liked it as an abstract! 😀

Next, I drew my design on it, and then painted around the shapes to form the second stage…of which I also liked, photographed and posted. lol It is VERY hard to throw caution to the wind, as it were, and paint over something you liked! I could have kept “Energies” as it was, and looking at it in the pic up there, I almost wished I had! ACK! Oh well…it is done. I like how it turned out in any case….

So, then, I now had to jump in and do the thing I had never done before, and risk mucking up the whole thing! Adding melted wax to the whole thing, scratching into the dried wax to make “distress” marks, and other marks, then covering the whole thing in black oil paint…rubbing it into all the nooks and crannies(I didn’t photograph that part). Then I put some linseed oil on a rag, and rubbed off the paint, so it only shows up in the marks I made in the wax. This is the final piece….

I am happy with it. I like the dreamy (hard to tell in the photo) effect the wax gives to it, plus the graffiti type look it has to it. It was a fun little project, that I no doubt will try again. I suppose I should likely keep it out of the sun, or away from any heat source though…or it will have to be renamed, “Melted Daydream”! hahaha

My source and inspiration for this technique was from this wonderful book…

A Side To Every Story

When I paint on canvas, or even wood, I like a nice thick side to it. I love the wraparound effect. It continues the “story” in whatever direction it is viewed. 🙂

interdimensional-balloon-race-side — Interdimensional Balloon Race

Music & Painting

Music is another of my passions. I don’t play any instruments…well a wee bit of guitar, but I am terrible at it!…but listening and digging for hidden musical jewels, old and new is a favourite pastime for me. Recently I discovered 8tracks.com, and started making playlists there just for fun. I like to play them, and others I have discovered there, when I paint…especially in the summer when I get to paint outside. Something about sunshine, good music, and color…. 😀

I am often inspired and get motivated by the music I am listening to while I paint. Every genre takes me in new directions, it seems. I love classic rock to paint to, and it often gives me the energy bursts, where my brush strokes become wilder, and very playful. Blues however, inspires more thoughtful considerations…deeper layering, more subtleness, more detail. It is a little weird when you think about it….but then again….maybe not so weird. Maybe music, being an art form in itself, is intrinsically tied to the creative process of painting…. I think so. I know so, because I feel it, and it is real. I paint far better and less distractedly when I listen to tunes, over, say a podcast, or a movie on Netflix, both of which I enjoy doing also while painting…especially watching Star Trek…which inspires me on whole other levels…but that is another story! lol

Anyway, I made playlists at 8tracks (and on my iPod of course, but I can’t embed those here :P) for my painting purposes, although they also work well when on the treadmill, or cleaning the house! lol

Today, as I delve into another mini painting, of which I am going to try a sideways approach to encaustic (painting with wax)for the first time…that is to say, not exactly encaustic painting, per se, but using the wax as an effect over acrylics (I shall write another post when I finish that, if it works out, and maybe even if not. haha), I think my blues/blues rock playlist at 8 tracks will work well with it, because I want a depth of feeling in this piece, even though it is just a mini, and sort of an experiment.

Every piece is special…and to quote Bob Ross, “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”. 😀

Uncovering Hidden Colors

One of my favourite techniques to use with acrylics is glazing. Using an extender (I use Folk Art floating medium) to thin the paint, as opposed to water, lets the under colors shine through in often unexpected and wonderful ways. It also “loosens up” recently dried paint, so it is extremely helpful when I want to employ sgraffito techniques, and uncover the color that way.

Glazing is amazing! 😀

glazing-with-watermark — detail from “Multiverse”

Color Reality

I have my artwork for sale at a few sites, and while I am generally happy with the way my paintings translate onscreen, and happy with the way the product turns out (I have ordered a few of my pieces on products as gifts…for others and for myself), there are a few occasions where a photograph cannot capture the essence or subtleties of the piece. I love to paint detailed whimsical landscapes, and I recently finished a 24×24 painting entitled “Summertime on Vega 7″(yes I am a sci-fi geek! lol),and just could not get a photo I was happy with. It looks ok, but not good enough to post to my online stores. Maybe I am just too picky, but it just bugs me when the photograph will not pick up the nuances of the colors, or the slight effects I add, which, to me, add immensely to the personality of the painting. I just could not get it to look right onscreen, so it will just hang on my wall, for myself and my family to enjoy. And here, of course…. 🙂

summertime-on-vega-7-with-watermark — “Summertime on Vega 7”

My paintings reflect my love of color, and the way it plays together. Layering of colors gives a luminosity to each piece, and photographs have a hard time capturing that, no matter the lighting when I take the pic.

My work is far better viewed in person, although I tend to be a hoarder of my paintings for my own personal enjoyment! hahaha No originals are for sale, as I can’t bear to part with them. I originally started painting for myself, because I find a catharsis in the process and at gazing at the end result. I often can lose track of time doing both. Painting is my escape from stress and anxiety, besides just giving me an immense feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. Color relationships and trying various brush strokes and visual effects are my thing. I love to explore with color, abstraction, and expression. Many times throughout the day, especially if I am feeling out of sorts, or stressed out, I will wander to one of more of them, and just get lost in the scene, the color relationships, the nuances, and the special little touches that I give each of them. Reality is always better in regards to viewing art. I think this is probably true of a lot of things, though….

Mini Paintings on Salvaged Wood

I love to go the salvage centre where I live in search of things to use in my art and jewelry making. Reclaiming things that others throw out, and making art out of them, is very satisfying to me. 🙂

The other day, my quest was for anything made of solid wood, so I could cut it up and paint on it. There were a few new techniques I wanted to try, and they both involved painting on a more solid surface than canvas. I had found a set of solid wood coasters, and they are perfect for mini painting and for trying out new techniques without spending a lot of time on a painting. I wanted to work on a smaller scale first before I put the time in tackling a bigger piece, and risk not having it turn out the way I wanted.

It turns out, however, that I loved painting on these things so much, that my first two ended up just being small paintings without the effects. hahaha

bloom-trees-with-watermark — “Bloom Trees”

Today, I finally did my first one with the antiquing effect I had been wanting to try. First I painted the image in acrylics, then distressed it with a pointy tool. After letting it dry overnight, I mixed a little Liquin with burnt umber oil paint, to make it a glaze, and covered the whole image with it. Then, taking an old piece of soft cloth, slowly buffed it off. The effect looks better in person than in the photo, but it worked out wonderfully! The oil paint works itself into the nooks and crannies created by my distressing marks, and the end result has a very warm and vintage feel to it. I can’t wait to do another! 🙂