Mixed media flower painting

I just finished making my second mixed media flower painting. It's so energizing to work with such vibrant, happy colours! I absolutely love making black and white zentangles and doodles, but I feel the same love for making colourful paintings.

I wanted this painting to show what summer in Sweden looks like. Or at least it shows my feelings for summer in Sweden. Colours, flowers and just pure happiness :)

Hope you like it!

 

A mixed media owl

I've been working on this owl painting for a few days now and yesterday it was completed. It's hard to know exactly when to stop, but suddenly it just felt right.

It's made on a canvas (46x38 cm, 18x14") and it's the largest piece I've ever created. I've used acrylic paint, scrapbook paper, gelatos and molotow pens. I made at least a million mistakes and lost hope several times, but after each revival the painting reached a higher level. I've definitely learnt not to fear mistakes :)

As you problable know by now, I LOVE owls so this painting is a darling to me. I just had to write the poem "A wise old owl" on it and I had to squeeze the last words in. It's so hard to calculate the space letters take and I was sure it would fit in without any problems and with a little force, it did.

So, here he is... my darling owl :)

The green/blue and bronze are metallic acrylics and it really glows in some angles. Love it!

For the first time one of my pieces was allowed to move in to our living room :)

My Guardian Angel

This is my second mixed media art journaling piece made on a canvas (30x40 cm, 12x15").

When I took a workshop by Kate Crane in 21 Secrets earlier this year, I fell in love with her way of drawing whimsical angels. I tried painting three angels on a small cardboard and loved them! Now I've taken it one step further and made one big angel and added more details like arms and hands. I'm so in the process of learning and I enjoy every minute of it.

One thing I love about acrylic paint is that it's so easy to cover mistakes. I think I repainted the face at least five times. At first it had no facial features at all. My husband thought it looked like a football and I decided to add eyes. That was a mistake, so I repainted it. Then I thought, why not paint a whole face? So I did... hahaha... the poor angel looked like a eunuch so I had to repaint it again.

So... no face, face, no face, face, no face... and here he/she finally is... my Guardian Angel :)

 

Canvas painting

I'm really astonished that this new year has started so great creatively for me. As I mentioned in my previous post I've had a hard time finding what I want to do, or to choose among all the things I want to do. But then I read Tracy Verdugo's blog where she wanted us to mention one intention for this new year.

One of my intentions is to be more persevering, persistent, to go on and go through with what I'm doing. I often give up thinking that everyone is much better than I am and that I might as well quit.

So, I've been wanting to make a canvas painting for a long time. I've looked at all the beautiful canvases that all talented artists out there have made and ended up not daring. Today I had the word persistent in my head and just started making my painting without thinking too much. I knew what colours I wanted to use and then I just made it.

The quote says "Don't grieve what you miss, be happy for what you have". I like that quote. It's so easy to forget to be happy over the things and people that fill your life and to focus on what you don't have.

Anyway... I started with painting one layer of gesso on the canvas, then went on with decoupaging some napkins and after that painted with different blue, green and white acrylics. Then I did some stamping, and  making circles with metallic paint. Some washi tape and a brown string and then it was finished.

I'm really happy with the result!