Stained Landscape

I decided I couldn't leave this one alone, and that it still needed more modulation in the trees, and a lot more blue in the sky and the water. I think this one is greatly improved, and the blue-green part in the middle actually looks like water with reflections of the trees.

I also added yellow to the trees, to show the earliest indications of fall, which is evident already in my part of the country.

stained canvas

And this canvas is starting to come together. There is always a point with this technique where I think I should just abandon it because it is not going to be repairable, but I find that if I keep working at it, it does start to improve.
The photograph doesn't really show it very well, because the image looks much more integrated in person. It still needs more work, though, perhaps to punch up the yellows and make the greens a bit more leafy-coloured. And the line is still quite evident, so I am going to try to do something to get rid of that.

Stained landscape

I completed and stretched the stained landscape today. I'm still not sure if it is finished, but I will have to wait a couple of days before doing anything more to it, so I don't over-work it and ruin it. The yellow-green at the bottom seems a bit too dominant, and it seems to need a bit more yellow in the back row of trees, but I will live with it a few days and see.

more stained canvases

Since I had the paints out and mixed, I decided to finish this canvas, which I started years ago, and abandoned because I thought that the amount of room for the sky was too small. I added the yellow-green to the bottom today, and will add blue to the sky and the water tomorrow.

I also had a very small piece of canvas with crumpled washi paper glued to it, so I glued it to a piece of foam core board, and started this painting. The paint follows the lines of the wrinkles, and creates an abstract pattern that will be great for petunias. It is very small - only 2.25 inches wide, so it is going to be challenging to finish.

Stained Canvas

I took a few days off and went to Lake Louise, so I didn't get much art time. I took a lot of pictures, but found all kinds of excuses not to draw or paint. I had started a painting of a grizzly bear long ago, so I took it along to finish while I was there, but I have a huge mental block about this painting, and always find excuses not to finish it.

Anyway, I got back home late yesterday, so I went back to work on the stained canvas. I decided that it was going to take too long to try to put in all the colors separately, so I added color all over the canvas. The colors look really bright in this picture, because it is wet, and now I am thinking I added too much alizarin crimson, but I will wait until it dries to make any more changes.

Tissue Collage - final

Here is the final picture. The composition is weak and should have been better planned, but the tissue worked as the main collage material, and the black canvas underneath also worked. It gives a nice depth to the shadows, and adds to the texture of the finished piece.

The photo doesn't really do it justice, because the texture is quite a bit nicer and adds a lot to the impact of the image.

Tissue Collage

I had a ruined canvas that was primed with black gesso, and I wanted to reuse it, so I thought I would try a collage using art tissue. I started by layering white over the top half, and then a layer of blue over that.

At this point it doesn't look like it will work, because the black is so strong, and I am wondering if it is just going to be a waste of materials to finish.

Stained Canvas - step two

I added the green tonight - Pthalo green straight from the tube. This will fade when it dries (you can see how much the purple faded compared to the previous image) and I will also add some Hooker's green and some yellows to make it look more natural.

Abstract Floral on stained canvas

I haven't had a lot of time to do artwork, due to all the normal interferences of life, but I finally managed to get a chance to start a new painting yesterday. This one is an abstract floral picture painted with acrylics on raw untreated canvas, using a staining technique similar to watercolor. I have done some like this before, although I worked with canvases already mounted on the stretcher bars, so it was a bit easier to control the color flow.

I started by machine washing the canvas to remove all the sizing and whatever else is coating the raw canvas. I decided to work with one color at a time for this painting, because the colors tend to mix and get muddy if I use several colors at once on a wet canvas.

I started with the few circles, and they looked perfect. By the next day, however, they had bled further than I anticipated, because I was too liberal with the water. There is also a crease across the canvas from the washing process, and it won't come out no matter how many times I iron the canvas, and the paint pools a bit there, so it may have to become a staight-line element in the painting, like a stick or something.

This picture shows the canvas on my table, after I reapplied color to some parts of the painting. It was wet when I took the picture, so it will fade as it dries.