Build a brighter world

I finished another painting! It helps to be able to paint 2 days in a row to get a lot of work done :-)

Although I must admit this one didn't go smoothly ... Something was bothering me and I didn't know what it was. Although, when I think about it know, I did know what it was, I just didn't want to know ...

I'll explain when I show you my in-progress pics ...

This is how it all started:

 Charcoal and collage on canvas. And now I know for sure: I don't like to use "normal" collage. Normal collage for me is collage from normal paper, as opposed to prints on delipaper. I don't like the chunkiness of it, I don't like it that you can keep seeing the edges, I don't like the smoothness as opposed to the texture of the canvas... I love how delipaper almost disappears into the canvas. So that'll stay my collage-material of choice.

Next step was to put a lot of ink and fluid acrylics on top

 Then we were going to look for things in our canvas. And what did I see right away? Yes, the big head in the lower right corner ... I had to go with it, even though it was in a bit of an awkward place....

Then I saw the standing figure, and the other face next to her. Again in a place I didn't really want it.

 But she kept begging me to bring her out, so I did ....

 

The way she was holding her hand reminded me a bit of the painting I finished a few weeks ago: this broken world". Again something I didn't want .... sigh ...

 But I struggled on, not really knowing where I was going with this but letting the painting guide me

This is where I was when the workshop finished .... And that same night after the workshop I woke up really early in the morning and knew that I wanted her to scatter flowers around. 

Problem solved, I thought ....

Throwing some paint on it trying to get some more different colours on there ...

Starting to bring out the flowers. Which was really tedious work I must say ...

But it was mostly tedious because something was still bothering me about this painting. And I knew what it was. It was the big face in the right corner, and the position of the second smaller face .... But I didn't want to take him away, because he was the first one I saw, and I kinda liked his weird face. And I didn't want to take the other face away because I really liked her hair....

What to do ....

Couldn't figure it out, so I decided to ask my family-members. Which went something like this ...

me: "is there something bothering you about this painting?
hubbie: "Yes! The big face in the right corner. Doesn't fit in with the rest"
son: "but I LIKE the big face. It's different"
me: "so the other face doesn't bother you?"
hubbie: "no, that one is okay"
son: "the big one is nice too, I like it"
me: "if I take it away, isn't it going to create an imbalance with the face on the left? With the 2 that remain being so close together?"
hubbie: "hmm, now you mention it ..."
son: "so leave it then, it's a nice face"
me: "maybe I should make it a bit smaller ..."
daughter (coming in the room just then): "take both of them away. They don't fit."

Hmmm ....

So I remembered one of the valuable lessons from Flora Bowley: if you're stuck: be brave and bold.

So I was .... (sorry son ...)

*gasp*

 aah, my beloved birds ... They fit in much better I reckon ...

Working out the shapes, still not completely sure ...

getting there and finally feeling happy with it :-)

working out the eyes and generally fixing some small things that are bothering me, and then it's finished!

"build a brighter world" - mixed media on canvas - 60x60cm - 23,6"x23,6"

I called it "Build a brighter world", because for me it's about bringing light into the darkness, bringing hope where there seems none left, bringing happiness in every which way you can, however small it is. I might 've been a bit inspired by this because of some things I came across this week. First of all the big Facebookcampaign Jessica Sporn has set up with regards to the 300 kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria "Artists for #bring back our girls". Have a look at their Facebookpage, the auction is now running here. All the money raised will go to Girl Rising, you can find information about that here.


I really admire Jessica for doing what she can to help raise awareness. It's thanks to people like her that the Nigerian government finally took some action to try and save these girls.

And another thing I came across this week was this artist who builds mini-houses for homeless people out of illegally dumped trash. Take a look here to see what he does. I think it's brilliant.

There are so many small things we can do to make this world a better place. It doesn't need to be big and all-consuming. And that's something I wanted to convey through this painting ...

Okay, this post is getting a bit long again, sorry about that :-)

This is the other painting I started during the workshop:

Want to try something different with this one ...

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday. There are some artists from PPF who are selling art in the auction, so one more reason to have a look over there. Thanks so much for visiting, I wish you a wonderful Friday and a bright and happy weekend ♥ ♥ ♥