More flowers and doodles

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 12 inch canvas 

Here's another vase of flowers, in time to celebrate the new year. I'm still getting the hang of using a dipping pen to doodle on canvas. Just when everything is going well out comes a big blob of high flow acrylic to clean up. Even so, I am beginning to see why people get into Zentangle.

Flowers and doodles

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 18 x 14 inch canvas 

This mixed media painting was done with scraped on paint, collaged painted deli wrap, figures outlined with high flow acrylics using a Fineline applicator, and glazes of transparent and translucent color. I added some doodles using high flow acrylic and a dipping pen to add some texture to the flowers, leaves, vase and table. The inspiration for this painting comes from the art of Sandrine Pelissier.

Big flowers

Painting by Vicky Christensen , acrylic on 30 x 24 inch canvas

Just finished this one yesterday. I scraped paint onto a blank canvas then went hunting for shapes. Several layers of paint and transparent glazes later it's a big vase of flowers.

It's been a while

Painting by Vicky Christensen , acrylic on 14 x 18 inch canvas 

I haven't finished a painting in a while. I had this old painting I had covered with black gesso and had an idea to paint white loosely over it and use a silicone tool to 'draw' my composition by removing white to expose the black. The white paint dried a little too fast so I used a Fineline applicator and black high flow acrylic to finish the drawing. The finishing layers are mostly glazes of transparent color .

Fun flowers

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 14 x 18 inch canvas 

Just finished this one. It started with blobs of paint that I manipulated with deli paper, then layers of stencils, high flow acrylic drips, collage of painted deli paper and high flow acrylic applied through a Fineline applicator. I finished it off with translucent and transparent glazes.

Here's how it progressed:

Quaking aspen

Painting by Vicky Christensen , mixed media on 16 X 20 inch canvas 

I haven't done a serendipitous abstract painting for a while so I started a couple new paintings using deli wrap to spread color around. After some layers of drips and stencils, I finished this one today. I like the shape of aspen leaves, so that was my motif for this painting.

Painting on Canson Plein Air Canva Artboard

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on Canson Plein Air Canva Artboard 

I bought a pad of Canson Plein Air Canva Artboard and decided to give it a try today. I thought it might be good for quick studies, and the resulting paintings should take up much less storage space than wrapped canvas. I used mostly fluid acrylics to complete this painting.

A neighborhood pond

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 20 x 16 inch canvas 

I tried something new on this painting. I started with an underpainting in colors that are more or less compliments of the 'real' color. My goal was a more loose style and I wanted to stretch the boundaries with regards to color.

The underpainting is below:

It's been awhile

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 20 x 16 inch canvas 

This one started out with collaged painted deli wrap. After stenciling and stamping with bubble wrap I started glazing. I am calling this Ripe Grapes.

Not a landscape

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 18 x 14 inch canvas

This painting started as a back lit grove of trees, but once I got into it I just wasn't feeling it. So I started blocking out shapes with a translucent glaze and followed with some glazes of color.

Back to the negative

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 18 X 14 inch canvas 

I bought an art tutorial video by one of my favorite painters, Linda Kemp, and I had to give some of her techniques another shot. She is an expert at painting in the negative to create beautiful abstracts that capture the light and colors of nature.

Serendipity

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 20 x 16 inch canvas 

I'm calling this painting Serendipity. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, serendipity is "luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for."

I took an old mixed media collage that was really colorful and had a lot of glass bead gel. I wanted to rein in some of the bright colors. After glazing over most of the painting that wasn't layered with glass beads, it left a few unconnected blobs of color plus a few butterflies I had stamped on the original painting. But then I identified some leaf shapes, started outlining them, did some colored glazes, found more leaf shapes. I kept painting and outlining leaves and collaged some painted paper to add three abstract flowers. And voila, the serendipity of finding a painting full of colorful leaves and flowers.

Another makeover

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 20 inch canvas 

I decided to make changes to another painting. The original was a collage of painted papers that had some areas I really liked but it was too dark and too green for my tastes. So I decided to used translucent and transparent glazes to cut around the leaf shapes and add more light and color contrast.

Here is the original painting before I did the makeover.

Convention bounce

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 20 inch canvas

I tried something new this time. I collaged newspaper clippings to a canvas and followed with layers of high flow drips, stencils and fluid acrylic glazes. I kind of wish I hadn't done the white outlines but maybe they will grow on me. Or maybe I will use glaze to tone them down.

Edit: I decided to glaze the white outlines. So I updated the photo. I took this one in daylight so the colors look different from the other photo.

Changes for the better

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 20 inch canvas 

This is another old painting that I decided to give new life. So I pulled out the paint and glazing liquid and went to work.

Here's what it looked like before:

Tulips!

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 20 x 16 inch canvas 

I decided to rework another painting. The original was a canvas with a lot of colorful stencils and abstract shapes. I loved the colors but it just didn't have any composition to speak of. I have been wanting to do more floral paintings so I thought why not use this old painting as a background for a floral in a more expressionistic style. So here it is!

FYI, this is the old painting:

Neighborhood walking path

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 20 x 16 inch canvas panel 

My inspiration for today's painting is a walking path within a mile from my house. I exercised a little artistic license, but I assure you the real thing is quite pretty and peaceful.

Here's the underpainting:

The collaged paper added some color and texture. The finished painting was supposed to be more expressionistic but I couldn't resist my ingrained tendency to add detail. Maybe next time.

Painting with Mom again

It's time for my monthly date to paint with my mom and a few of her fellow residents. Here are some photos. 

Shirley, Honor and Mom 

Juliana and Shirley. Juliana volunteered to help this month.

Shirley's painting 

Honor and Mom 

Juliana

Mom's painting 

Mom

Honor's painting 

A quick watercolor study I did.

Orbs and ovals

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 24 x 18 inch canvas 

This painting started with some painted deli wrap that I collaged onto the canvas. I followed up with a layer of light molding paste for texture, let it dry, then followed with drips, drops, sprays of water, glazes and so on. I couldn't resist lightly sponging a tint of my favorite Golden color, manganese blue hue, to finish off the painting.

Summer holiday bouquet

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 18 X 14 inch canvas 

Happy July 4th weekend to my US friends. Enjoy!

A Rose by Another Name

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 12 inch canvas 

I've changed my name. Well, not my name, I'm still Vicky. But I have changed the name of my blog. Goodbye 'Learning to Paint', hello 'Staying Young at Art'.

I have wanted to change my blog's name for a while. Don't get me wrong, I am still learning something new with every painting and I know there will always be so many skills to work on. So I am forever learning to paint.

About today's painting: It started with a canvas on which I applied some torn painted deli wrap. Then, every time I finished another painting I took the leftover paint and applied it to this canvas. Some abstract shapes and color harmonies began to appear. In the meantime I had a photo that I have always wanted to paint, a rose from my old flower garden, and a few days ago it struck me that this canvas would be the perfect backdrop. So I slipped the photo into a plastic sheet protector and used quinacridone magenta high flow paint and a Fineline applicator to trace the flower. Add more paint and a couple layers of gloss medium and, voila, the result is a painted skin that I peeled off the plastic and collaged to the canvas.

Waiting for paint (and gel) to dry

Work in progress 

It's 95 degrees Fahrenheit here in Minnesota today, a good day to be in an air conditioned room doing a little painting. So I did a little more work on this little painting. After the gel I used to collage the skin to the canvas dries I just have a little finishing work to do.

Wrapping up one painting, working on another

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 18 X 14 inch canvas 

I'm declaring this painting finished! I added some glazed shadows then painted over a lot of the texture with Liquitex iridescent medium. So along with the glass bead gel it has some cool light reflecting qualities.

In the mean time I have been working on another small canvas. Below is a peek at the skin that will be used on that painting. I'm waiting for the medium to dry before putting everything together and keeping my fingers crossed that the painting will come together without mishaps.

Acrylic skin for work in progress 

Art therapy

Work in progress? 

I haven't been very creative this week. I have a painting that I decided to change last week and I have been stuck. This is its current state. I don't know yet where I will take it next. But with life comes the perspective that it is just a painting, and right now I have other things on my mind and if I am painting it is only to distract myself. And it is a great way to distract, even therapeutic.

I have never injected my political thoughts into this blog. Today I will make an exception. Unless you are living in a cave somewhere you know what happened in Orlando Florida at the beginning of this week. More people massacred at the hands of a gunman, this time 49, the largest mass shooting in US history. 49 people whose families and friends are mourning their loss. 49 people more who are dead because we here in the US haven't had the courage and fortitude to stand up to the NRA and the powerful gun lobby and say 'enough' and really mean it. Every time this happens people of good conscience cry out for stricter gun control and those on the other side of the argument predictably claim the pro gun control side is exploiting a tragedy for political reasons. Well excuse me, when is the right time to push this issue? We have so much gun violence here we hardly have time to breathe before the next tragedy occurs.

Maybe there's a little ray of hope after Chris Murphy's fillibuster. Here is how the Connecticut Senator ended his nearly 15 hour fillibuster, with a tribute to young Dylan and the teacher he loved, Ann Marie Murphy, victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. Please, please watch the video: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/orlando-nightclub-massacre/filibuster-ends-after-gop-agrees-allow-gun-control-votes-senator-n593396

The fillibuster ended with Republicans agreeing to vote on two small measures. There is no guarantee they will pass, and in my opinion they do not go far enough. But they are a first step. Please don't let them be the last.

PS, This is how the old painting looked before:

Original painting 

No Fear

This morning I spent some time helping my mom and some of her neighbors paint. Just look at these women painting and drawing, all engrossed in the creative process.

This is my mom. She'll be 88 soon, and she's one of the youngsters in this group.

And here's her finished painting. I'm really proud of her. When she was young she loved to paint, but over the decades, raising a family (6 kids) and working both inside and outside the home, she stopped finding time for art. When our group started getting together several months ago, she hadn't painted in decades, was hesitant, afraid of making mistakes and afraid she might be picking the wrong color from her palette. Now she finds her own inspiration and fearlessly goes to work creating art.

When we get together once a month, my job is to set up the work space and supplies and clean up when we are done. The rest of the time I end up being a cheerleader. So many of the ladies don't give themselves enough credit and are way too hard on themselves. My mantra today was no fear! Don't be afraid to try and don't be afraid to make mistakes!

Busy day

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 12 inch canvas 

I put in a few hours today preparing a couple canvases, applying acrylic mediums on one and collaging some painted deli sheets on another. After doing that I decided I wanted to start and finish a quick little painting. This painting started with an underpainting of Intense colored pencils. I liquified the pencil marks with water and matte medium to set the ink. After drying with a hair dryer I finished with fluid acrylics, topped off with some transparent glazes

Wildflowers

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 20 x 16 inch Ampersand Hardbord panel

 I decided to recycle another painting. The original was heavily textured with acrylic gel applied through stencils as well as some collaged painted papers. I grabbed a few tubes of heavy body paint and applied paint randomly using a palette knife, leaving some of the old painting visible. I followed up with fine lines and scribbles of high flow acrylics, blotting with deli sheets. Today I finished it by painting some wildflowers using a palette knife and brush.

Here's what it looked like before:

Original Painting 

Finishing touches

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic paint and mediums on 16 X 12 inch hardboard panel 

I finally finished this painting. You may recall that this painting started with a surface heavily textured with Golden crackle paste. The surface is very absorbent, and when wet, paint will flow to all the little nooks and crannies. I got a little heavy handed with the darker and more intense pigments. My finishing touches were a drop shadow border, some very subtle Titan Buff glazed highlights and a final top coat of an acrylic faux encaustic mixture.