Lenten Offering: Simple Paintings

Tags

acrylic paint, acrylic paints, dictionary page, dictionary page art, Etsy, learning to paint, mandalas, painting

Yesterday in church our pastor was talking about the practice of giving up something for lent. She also talked about increasing an activity or behavior instead. I’m going to focus on using what I already have for art supplies and really focusing on painting. Well, I have been playing around with this book about learning how to paint with acrylics through the creation of 50 small paintings. I have done one and they make lovely backgrounds for mandalas.

So my plan is to make a painting a day as much as possible and work on the mandalas on the days I can’t paint. We are going to be heading back to WI in a few weeks and I wanted something more portable for while we are traveling.

Here is the book and the 2 paintings I did yesterday.

As you can see I learned that using masking tape on the dictionary pages doesn’t work very well so I’m just trying to keep tidy edges. One thing that is interesting about the picture of fields and trees is that the darker field is on the word “field” on the dictionary page. That was totally coincidence, but once I noticed it I tried to keep that part translucent. Something I learned in the making of the painting is that you can combine Mars Black with Cadmium Yellow Light to make the darkest green of the trees. The Moonlight Delight painting is for sale in my Etsy store. More paintings will be available by the end of Lent.

Focus on Gratitude

Tags

acrylic paint, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, Etsy, gratitude, Journal, Liquitex paint pens

Today I was pretty upset about the results of the election so I really focused on gratitude and making art.

This page layout is a different kind of grid based on some studio setup and getting my Etsy store launched. I really had fun selecting meaningful papers to arrange. In moving stuff around the studio I found some great painted papers, had my process painting class, and colored in some “store models” of my coloring pages.

I want to thank you guys for your generous comments on my bird selection question. I actually added tail marks to the bird in the bottom of the photo from yesterday’s post and put the spare bird in my art journal. The leaves are from an art therapy session. I’m very happy with my new therapist. I was interested in studying art therapy when I went to grad school to become a school psychologist, but went a different route. It is really interesting and exciting to be on the receiving end of art therapy. A technical note on this page is that I tried some pumice gel in the leaf background and it kind of became a mess. Probably not going to use it in an art journal again. But I did enjoy a new Liquitex set of supplies that I bought to check out their paint pen and how they work with other products. The spray paints really need good air circulation! Maybe I will save them for summer. But I like the pens and the color selection is interesting. Stay tuned for more experiments with these!

As you can see from the sticker in my art journal, I did vote. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to express my beliefs in the direction our country will go. This is not the first electoral disappointment I have been through and I know that there is going to be a lot of work for all of us who work for social justice. In the face of disappointment it is really helpful for me to focus on what I’m grateful for and I have so much. I still will worry, but this helped recharge my energy so I can do my part to keep our country great for people of color and others who are afraid of what the future will hold.