PAINTING WITH ACRYLIC SKINS

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  Acrylic Skins
  
  

  
  

       Many years ago when we lived in Glen Arbor, Michigan  I 

  worked as an office manager for the Glen Arbor Art Association. The Art Association is still in business and expanding. It was my pleasure to have met the professional artist; Harvey Gordon. Gordon paints in acrylics enjoying their brilliant colors, durability and water solubility. He perfected a planned glazing technique where he uses little paint and a lot of acrylic gloss medium to create phenomenally luminous detailed interiors.

  
  

  
  

     Somewhere I read about making acrylic skins so I experimented with the acrylic glazing medium on palette paper adding colors of my choice. I can hear myself saying;" That was an interesting waste of time", but I saved it anyway. 10 years later I have pulled the skins out to apply to my new expressionistic style on previously toned canvas.

 Flower close up

Finished painting.

A NEW BOOK AND A NEW DVD

By Anne O'Brien -Gonzalez

I am not fickle, instead I am inspired by many teachers. I enjoyed Anne's book and DVD so much that I ordered two more.
It is such fun to sit down to really focus on an audio visual lesson with my little dog snuggled next to me on the couch. Sometimes I take detailed notes and other times I just listen to it over and over again. All of the artists that I choose seem to be colorist/ expressionists so either that is what I am or this is just a stage that I will grow out of.

Either way here are some of my results.

Step 1

I recycled a former painting into my blue chair & flower center piece work. Step 1;  shows the detail of the actual table cloth which was voted down by a jury of one. Step 2;  I stenciled through real lace to give a more subtle detail to the table cloth. Same vote, it competed too much with the flower focal point.

Step 2.

Step 3

   

Step 3;  I thought that I should tone down the table cloth but when I looked at the photos from step 2 I decided the intensity of the pink table cloth worked better for this style of painting.

Step 4;  I added a rice paper blue that I thought linked back to the blue chair. Also I brought back the pink color intensity.

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Step 5;  I began working on the flowers adding rice papers. I like the addition of the lacy papers on the two far flowers but the front one is an enigma.

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I was going for a blue /orange complementary color theme so why did I try white flowers, boring? Blended in the blue paper, tried red flowers and added red stripes. Enlarged the vase and made it black with circles stamped on it. Cross word puzzle anyone?

Even the artist creating this has no clue where it is going. Oh Anne, I need your help:(

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To get back to the blue/ orange complement I painted the cloth orange, flowers white and enhanced the blue of the place mat.  Better but......

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Added the checked pattern, enlarged the place mat and worked on the flowers.

9

A little more punch and this painting goes into a time out so that the artist can recover.

10- Finished until further notice.

PAINTING IT AHEAD

     I have an excellent and dear instructor for my Silver Sneakers class; Pam. She takes good care of us "old folk" by gently pushing us out of our comfort zone to reach the max. of our individual potential.

      Unlike the rest of the worlds mothers, Pam likes to hike up big mountains, go kayaking and all sorts of other extreme physical activities while visiting her son!
For her birthday I wanted to try my hand at painting her a watercolors on Yupo which is what I have been experimenting with lately. ( See previous blogs)

     A few weeks ago Pam flew out to visit her son who lives on the Pacific North West.  I can tell from the look on her face that she was relaxed & enjoying precious time with Joey.

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I simply must learn to paint with the least number of brush strokes necessary. The Yupo paper is forcing me to do that but I still have not learned the lesson. In fact I am over this Yupo/ Terraskin phase.



Pam was so appreciative that I took the time to paint a picture of her on her vacation. Instead of Play it Ahead I titled this one...Paint it Ahead.

Pam & Joey.

MID CENTURY MODERN TAKES A TURN

     I had designed the figure, the mid century interior, the primed hot pink canvas so off I go on a large  project.

First touches of black.

Almost done.

     I was all set for a mid century modern scene but no matter what I did it did not please me.

Here comes the turn that even surprised me and I'm on the paint brush side of the canvas!
I saw a picture of a model in a magazine and imagined her on this very canvas. Many times I paint over works of art and love the peek through color and shapes.

When I get a mental image that is strong I know I have to paint it and I have to paint it NOW.

So....That turned into this:     

Step 1

Step 2

Contemplating flowed out of me spontaneously; .........THIS IS MY STYLE!!!!!


Can you pick out some of the elements of the original painting?

Done.

AN INVITATION TO VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE

     I am proud to  announce the launch of my new www.koseroriginalart.com web site. 

Please log on, peruse and leave a comment.

 Check back often! 

       Mary Ellen

ARTIST AT WORK

     Here is my latest Polly Hammett attempt. I designed a figure pose, added background details on vellum paper. The advantage to the see through paper is that I am able to visually determine where the design best fits on my painting surface. Ah, the little things I learn as I entertain myself with art.

  Next I did three different value studies to see which option I liked best. As I look at my sketches I did not choose any of them. Somehow I had a mid century vision of a white lacquer bench seat with a balance of white objects. I still seem to be on my black background kick but I can see that wearing thin very soon.

I blocked in the colors I was sure about and guessed at the rest. It does have a distinctive vibe to it but I have a ways to go before I sleep.

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Here is my final product from this session. 

PLEIN AIR IN A TEAR DROP CAMPER

I admit that not all of my ideas are practical but they are fun to think about, I'm a dreamer.

Wouldn't it be grand to have a group of traveling Plein Air painters who used little Tear Drop campers as their painting studio?  Park that puppy in a beautiful setting and everything is ready to go. A table for a palette, storage for easels, umbrella, paints, lunch and maybe dinner with friends around a camp fire.

Instead of this......

..... use a Tear Drop camper for plein air painting.

I could not resist filling my imaginary camper with my supplies. Like the touch of my new web site address on the side of the camper?

                                         

                                         

I need a name for this band of artists traveling to catch the best light of the day or the best scenery around or stopping at a local restaurant to discuss a day well spent out of doors.

How about "PAINT ABOUTS", instead of a walk about...well you get it.

No logic went into the formation of this idea! I don't know how much they cost and I could not back it up if my life depended on it.  I'm in my dream time.