Watch me painting....

I love to paint abstract pieces, this one from last year show my process of building up layers. I love to see a painting appearing as if by magic on the page!

Layer#30 Embracing Fear

I find it really tough to layer sometimes. I think it's the control freak in me. Sometimes it's hard to let go. Your brain overrides your heart and wants to know where you are going? What's going to happen? What are you trying to achieve and even sometimes what is the point?

I find when I am faced with a massive hurdle like this its because I'm on the cusp of something big. I'm about to realise something or discover something that is going to propel my work forwards.

At times like these I know I need to push on. Sometimes just getting something on the page,  anything is a start. And it's also the beginning of overcoming this great hurdle and overriding my inner critic.

Today feels like one of those days!

Layer#29 Transforming Light to dark!

So after the last layer I was inspired to begin a whole new body of work surrounding boats and waves. I have left my Journey canvas for a few days wondering what to do next so have come to a decision that in times of confusion and indecision it's time for another complete transformation. So here we go: from so much light and white foreground let's embrace the dark!

Painting process, from start to finish!

Painted Pattern Pages

I love creating patterned pages to use as collage papers.  I tear then up and use the pieces as added colour/texture/detail in the backgrounds of my paintings. A great way to start adding layers to create something totally unique to you! Love the process, that's where the magic happens!

Layer#28 Drawn in Details

Details have now been drawn in using poshca pens. I have also added an accent colour to make the boat stand out as the central focal aspect.

Layer#27 Stencil relief

I really love this technique. The strong bold sections of untouched colour combined with the the suggested outlines of the stencils and the textured white areas. The brayer has left previous layers to peak through here and there adding subtle hints of hidden depths. I think this could look even more beautiful with detail drawn over the top.

Layer#26 Abstract painting

Patterns Everyday; Combining #1 & #2

Starting with my expressive abstract page (Patterns Everyday #2) I have collaged small pieces of my painted patterns (Patterns Everyday #1) to add extra details and layer up my page. I have then painted, doodled and stamped over the top to create the final page.

Patterns Everyday #2 Expressive Painting

As part of following my creative intuition I have found I am always drawn to expressive painting.  I just love the freedom and spontaneity of it. Today's #dailycreate is more in the realms of painting than pattern making but they all seem to link together for me and flow into one. Here are today's pages;

Layer#25: Pattern Collage

I have really loved working with my painted pattern pages. This has been a really fun way to add lots of painted areas and new detail to my painting whilst being able to test the placement of the patterns before committing to their final position.

I love incorporating them into the background colours and shapes from previous layers and helping all aspects work together as a whole new composition! Next step; paint over collage!!!

Patterns Everyday #1

Doodles and watercolour painted patterns-creating my own pages to college with!

January Review & February Brief

Wow what a month! I feel like it's been a year already by the amount I have learnt. This month has really been fantastic for creating the freedom I've been longing for to just paint, to feed the urge to paint and how much it's opened me up and given me a new found confidence.

One of the biggest lessons I've learnt is that the more creative I become the louder the inner critic starts to shout.  This makes sense that they go hand in hand so leaning to battle this has been the biggest unexpected roller coaster!  This is also what makes the journey so rewarding and I'm loving every minute of it!

Overview of January;

* Number of Layers= 23
* Number of different techniques used= 9
   - mark making
   - stencilling
   - painting with a brush
   - painting with found objects
   - sprays and splatters
   - line quality
   - brayering
   - collage
   - sgraffito
* Number of mediums used: 7
   - acrylic paint
   - gesso
   - gel medium
   - typeface (book pages)
   - biro
   - charcoal
   - pencil
* Number of total transformation layers=3
* Number of happy painters= 1! :-)

February brief:

So far throughout this project I set myself the brief of having the freedom to create and paint through expression and experimentation. This has been a fantastic as a way to begin. To open myself up and make the time to create every day.

I now want to dive deeper. I'm ready to go to a new level so February is going to have its own focus. I don't want this project to become stale. What I mean by this is that I don't want it to become a chore, something I feel I "have to do" therefore I have decided to allow this project to change and evolve over time along with my creative drive. To follow the twists and turns of intuition to guide this adventure.

So the focus for February is;
To play with positive and negative space.  To work with the overall image as a whole as well as the fine detail.  It's all about the balance and composition.

I'm also introducing "patterns everyday" which will enable me to practice mark making, colour combinations and patterns as separate artworks on separate pages. I will then cut/tear shapes out and collage these on the canvas to experiment with placement and composition. This should allow me to focus on the bigger picture when working on the canvas whilst developing the fine details separately.  This will mean that my pages will now become the daily focus whilst I will work on the canvas a couple of times a week. I can't wait to get started!

Layer#24 February's first layer: composition

Layer#23 Mark making, homemade style!

Today I really felt the urge to extend the arc that was appearing across the canvas.  It almost looks like a huge whirl of crazy paint that is literally engulfing the layer below just in the same way as a wave crashes in a torrent of white foam.

I have been quite expensive with this layer, creating my own mark making tools which includes a piece of cardboard that I used in the same way I would use a spatula, smearing and scraping the paint across the canvas.

I then used the wrong end of a paint brush to scratch into the think paint, creating interesting marks and texture.

It was then time for a contrast so I dipped a piece of string into some white gesso and proceeded to slap the canvas with the string. It left some beautiful strong marks all with a lovely curve to them.

I finished by using my fingers to splatter and spray the remaining white gesso (mixed with water) over the slapped areas.

I really enjoyed painting in this way, it made me feel really free and expressive, somehow coming away from it newly light hearted.

Layer#22 Stencilling

Added pattern detail through stencilling.

Layer#21 Blue acrylic arc

I don't know why I love blue so much but I do.maybe it's because I live by the sea?! That might explain the urge I had to create a large blue arc, I suppose it's quite representative of a wave.

I love the combination of creating bold solid colour with acrylic paint and then adding water to areas which loosens up the paint creating more of a transparent wash. Adding gravity to the mix creates these gorgeous striking streaky watery drips that cut their way across the piece.  Blue bold and beautiful!

Layer#20 Line quality

Having stripped back to quite a plain canvas I felt this was a good opportunity to stick with monochrome and add detail using different qualities of line.

I chose a colouring pencil, a charcoal stick, a biro and some heavy body acrylic paint- all black in colour to really differentiate between the mediums.

There were some surprising results. A combination of both fine and delicate lines with bold and chunky expressive marks creates a really beautiful and elegant combination that I think would work well as the finishing touches to a painting not just to add interesting detail to yet another layer as I have done here.

The biro created whirly swirly marks that are quite similar to handwriting but look so beautiful peaking out from behind the sporadic dark marks of the heavy acrylic.  The charcoal can smudge and blur as well as create gorgeous crisp lines as the pencil leaves a ghost like streak along side.

I think what I love most about these lines is the overall effect, how they seem to compliment one another to create something far more beautiful than each would individually.

Layer#19 White out

This layer was screaming out for a fresh start, something simple to build upon, so there was really only one thing for it; white gesso and some brayer love!

The brayer means that some of the previous colour peaks through the gesso whilst the textures are really highlighted. The mass of white almost creates a blank canvas all over again yet these layers that we see a little glimmer of here and there add a whole new dimension to an otherwise complete white out!