Week 4

This week our challenge was to follow steps for a piece similar to an artist that Kerry found, by the name of Kelly Rae Roberts. It uses the technique of collaging and painting over the top of it. It also suggested painting affirmations on your painting. She has a very informative and creative blog site too.

So here's my attempt......I created the collage and fell in love with it and had a hard time painting over the top of it. I liked the reds and blacks in it and I put some red in some gel medium to stick the pieces on. Because I don't scrapbook I didn't have scrapbook paper, instead I cut up newspapers and magazines.

I then got stuck into it after looking at my collage for a very long time. I started with the colours and was freaking out about choosing the wrong colours then worried about them not blending properly. Finally I gave in and let go and chose a figure I drew on the collage. I have to say I suprised myself and am happy with the results - more than I thought anyway!

Sorry about the sequence of the photos, I'm having trouble editing my posts!

Week 3 Challenge

Hi, I found this one really challenging like Kerry did too! It's taken me till today - the due date - to complete at least one painting. I woke up this morning with motivation. In my head I thought, "That's it!?! I need to make time for this and get it done!"

I got up and set myself an hour minimum and put on "Saturday Morning Cartoons" Compilation. For some reason when I woke up I just wanted to listen to that banana splits song "tra la la" and it really suited the mood. I just wanted to be playful and a little childish and have fun! Half way through I found the songs were a little more "rocky" in beat and that's when I started painting with more mark making and also put in darker colours.

I also started with watercolours and water soluble pastels but they just didn't cut the deep colours and textures I wanted to create with this music on.

I also agree with Kerry that once I listened to a few songs it was easier. I think I would like to do more paintings and also like to revisit this exercise. It'd probably be good to do every second week to let things go and loosen up with our painting.

Week 3 "Dancing to the Music"

I'm having trouble getting started on this one. I haven't made time. I'm finding other "things" are taking over. I feel the deadline coming soon.........argh! Help!

Week 2 "Mountainscape"

Ok, I have a problem! I had trouble finishing this off properly! This is the start of my landscape. I still need to work more with the acrylic. I had trouble interpreting the instructions and decided to stop in fear of making a mistake rather than just making it up as I went on.

I think it may be worth doing another one rather than just pondering on this one. I must also remember to loosen up and not expect a master-piece at the end of it! I did enjoy working with Gesso and the Gel Medium and working out how they interact with the pain. I did enjoy watercolours more than I thought too! I loved watching them bleed together to see what would happen.

Week 1 "Finger Painting"

The last exercise was to do a finger painting. I wanted to paint a picture and keep it neat then I realized with finger painting you could let loose, not just do strokes, but blot and splatter and rub and leave large areas of paint on the paper and mix different colours on the paper. Fun!

Week 1 "Picture With Your Name"

Kerry came up with the great idea of incorporating your name in a picture. We could use any media we liked and create as many pictures as we liked, as long as we completed one.

The first thing I thought of was using my letters of my name to shade the picture, it seemed a little intense for my first piece so I then moved to putting my name into my hair.

As you can see, I technically didn't finish the picture, I think I find myself not completing pieces because I get to a point where I think too much, feel like I've gone to far and am unsure about going too far ahead. Something I need to work on............still really enjoyed this one, I liked that I thought a little outside the box.

Then I thought I should loosen up, I saw what Kerry did that week with her name and was inspired to do another name picture. I remember doing plenty of doodles in black pen when I was in high school and uni. I even cut them out later in the year and stuck them together to make a collage. So this was my bit of a trip down memory lane.

I had more fun with this one because I wasn't thinking, just letting the pen go where it wanted to.