Getting Back to Paint, One Decision at a Time

There has been a lot of paint on my worktable lately.

I've been making wreaths, but I also wanted to get back to drawing and painting. Lately that has meant mixed media: starting with a printed image and working it into a canvas with paint, paper, and texture.

Having an image to start with doesn't settle what the finished piece should look like. It gives me something to respond to.

The colorful girl was a good example. She had a blue-black sky behind her and bright swirls moving around her. I kept looking at it and thinking it needed something else.

I considered several possibilities. A crack in the sky. Small patches of galaxy. I needed to see them before I could decide. Then I went back to the actual canvas and added stars. The blue-black sky was already there; I could work with it.

I also added painted curls to her hair and highlights to the swirls. Those smaller marks helped connect the printed portrait to the paint surrounding her.

Another portrait on the table is taking a different route. Her hair is full of flowers and butterflies, and her eyes are closed. I had her printed on 18 × 24-inch canvas paper at Office Depot, then decoupaged the image onto a canvas with Mod Podge.

After that came acrylic medium around the cut edges. In the white stage, the texture stands out quite a bit. It has a practical purpose: hiding where the paper meets the canvas. But those raised marks also give me a surface to paint into.

For her background, light blue and dark blue are the direction I chose. That choice gives me another decision to make: where to keep the background light, where to deepen it, and how much of the texture to bring forward.

These pieces are still teaching me what I can do with the materials. The image, the paint, and the surface all need to work together. Sometimes the edge needs attention. Sometimes the background does. Sometimes I need to stop adding things and look at what is already there.

I've been enjoying the momentum. Finishing one part makes me want to pick up another piece and see what it needs.

That's what I'm sharing here: the work as it develops, including the choices I change my mind about. You may see a piece before it has a title, before the background is settled, or before I know whether the next idea belongs in it.

There is more paint to put down. For now, I'm glad to be doing it.

You can see my available original artwork in the Designs of a Creative Soul shop.