folk art – Sunshyne Art & Design

Tropica

I recently joined an art networking site called paintingsilove.com, and it is a wonderful site for getting feedback on your paintings/drawings, and for the inspiration aspect to it, as well. I often gather creative energy when I visit there! One comment I received on a painting I posted, called it “lush”, and that word was a great prompt to break through the creative block I was experiencing at the time. 🙂

I thought of the word, and what it meant to me, and I immediately went to Hawaii in my head. The lushness of that place is beyond amazing! The scenery notwithstanding, it is lush in other ways, as well, like the scents, and the tastes, and the general feeling of the place.

I felt inspired to do a painting with tropical colours, with the objective being to give me a sense of being in the tropics every time I looked at it. And also a feeling of peace and joy. 🙂

I wanted also to do it intuitively, instead of having a detailed plan. I wanted to see where my mind would take me, just by using color and imagery such as flowers. I started my usual way, with just a background of smeared color, and then looked at it to see what would emerge. I found three birds, a large heart surrounding two of them, and another smaller heart to the right of them. Birds seem to keep appearing in my work! Hearts always did, and continue to do so. Must be some kind of symbolism in that for me, I suppose. lol

I added stencilled flowers, and began to paint the top layers, sketching out my shapes with white chalk, and going with the crackle gel effect again, in spots because I love it so much! 🙂

Painting a slightly translucent layer of white, then going over it in a color gives a lovely luminosity with acrylics, so I tended to employ it quite a bit with this piece. The finished painting fills me with color joy when I look at! I hung it in my foyer, so I see it a LOT. It turned out as happy and tropical as I had intended without using stereotypical tropical imagery like palm trees, etc. Have to be different, ya know! 😛

I have it posted at my various art shops. It looks great as prints and on products such as tote bags! 😀

tropica342510-bags — “Tropica” @ society6…..Click pic for link! 🙂

preview-yoga-leggings-585214-back — “Tropica” on leggings @ art of where….click pic for link! 🙂

Unicorns Graze Here

My newest little acrylic started out bright purple and blue, and I had no idea where it was going to go. It wasn’t moving me, so I mixed white and bronze yellow together with my fingers, and just smooshed it all over to cover the purple.

I then “drew” into the wet paint with my pointy tools to bring out the purple underneath. I also used my new fave “paint lifter” which is a piece of cotton lace-like ribbon.

I missed doing my whimsical landscapes, so that is where this one ended up going. I love my trees, hills, and mountains! 🙂

I did the colouring over the white/bronze yellow background with acrylics heavily diluted with floating medium, so that they were super transparent. I built up the color, transparent layer by transparent layer….sides too…of course!

I love how the glazing gave it a vintage kind of feel….especially over the distress marks I had made earlier. Super pretty colorations! 🙂

I like the little landscape I ended up with. Needed an interesting name. Sometimes(usually! lol) I have a very hard time coming up with names for my paintings.

I thought it looked like a happy, magical place to be…a place where one might find unicorns grazing. ;D

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

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….