finished my painting!

A whole week since I've posted on my blog! Normally I post also on Tuesday but this week my scanner broke down and my computer acted all weird, so I just left it and did other things. The problems seems to have been (almost ) solved now, so hopefully next week I'll be able to scan again ;-)

Meanwhile I finished my "struggle"-painting. Phew! Happy that I got it more or less to my liking in the end. Believe me, there were moments I was ready to throw it out of the window ...

But just the idea of having nothing to lose made me more free in the things I tried out. I played around with colours and collage, with stamps and doodles, and all of a sudden I couldn't add any more, it felt finished.

Despite my blah-moments during the painting-process, when I thought I had completely ruined the vibrancy and colours that were there, in the end I was really happy with the colourcombination. So I thought "break up the dark" was a fitting title for this painting :-)

As always, I'll show you all the progress-steps this painting went through. For me it's also interesting to look back on all the (sometimes frustrating) stages ...

This was the start. I collaged some of my own artwork on there, and some text and poetry. And then I started wiping my leftover-paint from different projects all over the canvas.

Since I was doing so many things at the same time, and I had only one canvas for leftover paint, I put so many layers on top that my collage practically disappeared .... Oh well ....

Decided to add some more collage, and for the first time I used modelling paste through a stencil. That was fun!

Following some of the collage-pieces, I made her a body, but wasn't happy with it. First blah-moment ...

Found 2 arms on the left of her and decided to glue a face on top of that too. Still blah.

This must've been my biggest blah-moment. I wanted to bring it all together a bit more, to bring some calm in the chaos, but I managed to get rid of all my lovely bright colours and make it drab all over ...

Quick, throw some colour on there! I also decided to make her body a different angle, and liked her a bit better already ....

Completely stuck, so playing a bit with stencils and sprays. Still no clue how to proceed. Still blah.

Decided it needed some contrast, so I did what Orli Avineri taught us: take a fat brush and just sweep it across your page like a tennisplayer :-) Uh-oh

Still not sure how to proceed, so I decide to continue with my new-found love: trees and flowers ... And I give the girls some collaged hair from one of my journaldrawings. Love how I can make totally different hairdo's from the same print :-)

I get the idea to make 'Alisa Burke-like" flowers in my trees, to brighten things up a bit (it's still too dark for my liking)

No! No no nooooo .. Don't like it at all, so I take my babywipes and try to wipe them all away. But some don't want to go. What to do?

I decide to use some gelliprinted deli-paper, that I just used to wipe my plate with every time. It's still thin so it collages perfectly, but it's not so transparant anymore because of the many layers of paint. I love how I can suddenly get rid of all those spots I don't like and decide to make flowers all over :-)

And from then on its just play play play. With my paint markers, with collage, with colours, with stamps, and finally it's finished!

"Break up the dark" - mixed media on canvas - 40x40cm (15,7" x 15,7")

And guess what I'll be doing this weekend!? I'll be painting 2 days in a row, in a 2 day workshop with Tracy Verdugo "sacred marks", here at the Sunshine Coast! Can't wait! Must not forget to take lots of pictures.

Meanwhile, I've sent the 2 giveaway-paintings to their new homelands, and keep my fingers crossed that they'll arrive safely.

And before I finish: Society6 has another FREE shipping promotion, from now thru to 11th May. I'm experimenting with making t-shirts now, and using my lyricsgirls in another way. Here are some new products I made:

It's kinda addictive, making these things ;-)
If you want to make use of the promotion, this is the link you should follow.

Okay. Long post, I think I more than made up for not posting on Tuesday ;-) Thanks so much for visiting, and don't forget to have a look at all the artists that participate in Paint Party Friday!

Hope your weekend will be all you wish for, and at least: get some rest and do some things you love ;-) I'll be back on Tuesday with a report of the workshop! Bye for now ♥ ♥ ♥