COLOUR!!!!!!

The oxymoronic online painting course that Nomad and I are taking started yesterday, I had tremendous problems with the video, but it was enough...she wants us to sand the canvas (I didn't) and prime it (again) with gesso (I didn't) and she wants us to sand that smooth as well (can you see where this is going? I didn't) Not very obedient am I, especially for a Canadian, eh?

Anyway, the course is focussing on backgrounds, so we were supposed to lay down a plain thin smooth layer of colour as the base. Well, mine isn't smooth at all, I kind of like the texture of paint, so rather than spraying it with water to thin it, and mixing the colours with white (I like them bolder so...I didn't) and then spreading it with a foam brush...well...I trowelled it on with a pallete knife...let me tell you, THAT was fun. But it was still a little boring (I know, this was supposed to be an underpainting, but like I said, I am not so good at obedience) so I decided to add some variations to the colour, you can see it here, I have spread the base coat and squirted on the brighter yellow....



Then I spread it around in a pattern I like, and took the picture. As I looked through the viewfinder I really liked the highlight effect I saw from the light behind me, so I snapped the photo and then added some white.

This is what I got:



My only problem is that I really like it and I am not sure I want to do anything else at all. (This may be why she wanted it so plain, hmmm?)

I had decided to do a couple of other canvases at the same time, so I did this one on paper, using a discarded painting by youngest as the base....recycling is a good idea, isn't it?



As you can see I am still applying rather too much texture and variation to the canvas for the class requirements, but I think it is interesting anyway....they are also WAY too big for the class requirements, they were supposed to be 8"by 10" the big one is probably two feet by three feet, and the smaller, a foot and a half by two. Ah well. I like working big.

Then I did this third one, again I failed to make it plain and simple, in fact it is probably the most dramatic of the three. First I laid down the red, but it needed to be controlled a little, red is kind of that way, so I layered on a thick coat of blue and then I started to play...sort of sculpting it around on the canvas, which was WAY fun...and then I added the finishing drawings with the point of the trowel. The only problem is that I don't want to stop. I did all that far too fast. Disappointing.



We are next supposed to do some collage work and stick things onto the canvas when they are dry, meh, I am not too enthusiastic about this, but I will do it with at least one....I am taking the class to play with the paints, so it makes sense to try out a number of options. I think I will paint the main features on though rather than collaging them. Smacks a little of scrap-booking, which isn't awful, but not what I am aiming at. I may do one more if I can find where the kids hid the painting paper, and do this one the way we are supposed to for the course. Or not.

For all of you bored senseless by this, here's one other very colourful thing that has appeared in my life....look what came in the mail!!!



This is a bag that I bought from Joyce who makes them herself, and they are stunning, not only that, the money goes to help the crisis in Darfur...I love the bag if you see this Joyce, and thank you so much...