Creative Play

Today I played around with creating a painting with the  acrylic/alcohol resist technique on Bristol Board. It was a trial and error process until I got the look I wanted.

I used Golden’s fluid acrylics and 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. The first photo shows three separate layers of this technique and the second one shows the iridescent bright gold (fine) fluid acrylic paint, I used to add highlights and detail.

Harmony # 1 – Acrylic/Mixed Medium – 8 x 11 inches on Bristol Board

Harmony # 2 – Acrylic/Mixed Medium – 8 x 11 inches on Bristol Board

“I didn’t want to get into something which is played out and narrow. I want to do as I like, invent my own interests.” – Wassily Kandinsky

Creative Play

The January theme for Creative Everyday 2009 is . . . Play!

I’ve been feeling less than creative for the past few weeks so I decided to get a head  start on one of the projects that I planned on doing in January.

I wanted to try the charcoal technique from a video I posted on the 14th of this month, so I prepped a canvas, grabbed my charcoal, rubber stamps and began to create the painting below.

The Tree Song – Acrylic/Mixed Media – 8 x 10 Canvas

After I had applied the stamps and charcoal to the canvas, I began sketching  and painting the woman’s face and the bird, and then added a tree and music notation.

What fun! This little project certainly got my creative juices flowing again.

Creative Play

Creative playtime is often one of the most important activities we can engage in as artists. I believe taking the time to play with new ideas, new mediums and color palettes, keeps us in touch with our creative child. After all, our child just wants to have some fun. Taking risks and experimenting is key to our growth and makes us feel alive, and rejuvenated.

We all know that it’s fun to create and make things, and yet we tend to go straight from the idea to the finished painting, without giving ourselves some precious creative goofing around time in the studio.

You know what I mean, maybe your a water-colorist or oil painter, and those pastels you bought way back when, has never been opened . The time for trying something new is now, for later seems to never come.

Go ahead, give yourself permission to goof around with something you have always wanted to try, but never did.

Just Breathe, let go, and flow!